Claus Rueffler
Uppsala University
Does Organismal Complexity Favor the Evolution of Diversity?
[When and where]
It has recently been proposed that, on theoretical grounds, one should expect a positive correlation between organismal complexity and diversity. This conclusion is based on the finding that in a Lotka-Volterra competition model, so-called evolutionary branching points are more likely to exist the more quantitative traits determine the carrying capacity function and the competition coefficient. We present two results elaborating on this finding. First, the prediction can also be derived in a model independent manner based on general considerations about the fitness landscape in a multidimensional trait space. Second, in order to get a more mechanistic understanding of this finding we analyze an explicit Lotka-Volterra consumer-resource model in which consumers and resources are both characterized by several quantitative traits and in which the fitness landscape emerges from the interaction between consumer and resource traits. This analysis supports the proposition that complexity favors the evolution of diversity. An additional insight is that not only increasing complexity in the evolving population (the consumer) but also increasing complexity in its environment (the resource distribution) facilitates evolutionary branching.
Invited talk Mini-symposium 8
Updated May 13, 2015, by Minus