Environmental Versus Demographic Variability in Two-Species Predator-Prey Models

2012/06/30 by Ulrich Dobramysl, Uwe C. Täuber, Uwe C. Tauber
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models #cond-mat.stat-mech #q-bio.PE

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.110.048105

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 (2013) 048105 · 5 pages, 4 figures included; to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. (2013)

arxiv created 2012/12/28 · openalex publication_date 2013/01/24 · arxiv updated 2013/01/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We investigate the competing effects and relative importance of intrinsic demographic and environmental variability on the evolutionary dynamics of a stochastic two-species Lotka-Volterra model by means of Monte Carlo simulations on a two-dimensional lattice. Individuals are assigned inheritable predation efficiencies; quenched randomness in the spatially varying reaction rates serves as environmental noise. We find that environmental variability enhances the population densities of both predators and prey while demographic variability leads to essentially neutral optimization.

Citations

• Influence of local carrying capacity restrictions on stochastic predator–prey models
• Predator-Prey Cycles from Resonant Amplification of Demographic Stochasticity
• Phase Transitions and Spatio-Temporal Fluctuations in Stochastic Lattice Lotka–Volterra Models