Cyclic transitions in simulated food-web evolution

Abstract

Eco-evolutionary food-web models help elucidate the processes responsible for the emergence and maintenance of complex community structures. Using an individual-based model of evolving trophic and competitive interactions, we highlight a pattern of community macroevolution involving two meta-stable states, corresponding to a plant–herbivore community and a plant community, respectively. On the evolutionary timescale, our model exhibits cyclic transitions between these alternative community states. The model also helps understand the eco-evolutionary mechanisms underlying these recurrent rapid transitions, which end intermittent periods of near-stasis or punctuated equilibrium.