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Evolution in a changing environment
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Baronchelli, Andrea, Chater, Nick, Christiansen, Morten H. and Pastor-Satorras, R. (2013) Evolution in a changing environment. PLoS ONE, Vol.8 (No.1). e52742. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052742 ISSN 1932-6203.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052742
Abstract
We propose a simple model for genetic adaptation to a changing environment, describing a fitness landscape characterized by two maxima. One is associated with "specialist" individuals that are adapted to the environment; this maximum moves over time as the environment changes. The other maximum is static, and represents "generalist" individuals not affected by environmental changes. The rest of the landscape is occupied by "maladapted" individuals. Our analysis considers the evolution of these three subpopulations. Our main result is that, in presence of a sufficiently stable environmental feature, as in the case of an unchanging aspect of a physical habitat, specialists can dominate the population. By contrast, rapidly changing environmental features, such as language or cultural habits, are a moving target for the genes; here, generalists dominate, because the best evolutionary strategy is to adopt neutral alleles not specialized for any specific environment. The model we propose is based on simple assumptions about evolutionary dynamics and describes all possible scenarios in a non-trivial phase diagram. The approach provides a general framework to address such fundamental issues as the Baldwin effect, the biological basis for language, or the ecological consequences of a rapid climate change.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | Q Science > QA Mathematics Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Adaptation (Biology) -- Mathematical models | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | PLoS ONE | ||||
Publisher: | Public Library of Science | ||||
ISSN: | 1932-6203 | ||||
Official Date: | January 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Vol.8 | ||||
Number: | No.1 | ||||
Page Range: | e52742 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0052742 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 23 December 2015 | ||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 23 December 2015 | ||||
Funder: | Spain. Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC), Andalusia (Spain), Catalonia (Spain) | ||||
Grant number: | FIS2010-21781-C02-01 (MEC), P09-FQM4682 (JA) |
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