Simulating eco-evolutionary processes in an obligate pollination model with a genetic algorithm

Journal article

Pollination interactions are common, and their maintenance is critical for many food crops upon which human populations depend. Pollination is a mutualism interaction; together with predation and competition, mutualism makes up the triumvirate of fundamental interactions that control population dynamics. Here we examine pollination interactions (nectar reward for gamete transport service) using a simple heuristic model similar to the Lotka–Volterra models that have underpinned our understanding of predation and competition so effectively since the 1920s. We use a genetic algorithm to simulate the eco-evolutionary interactions of the plant and pollinator populations and examine the distributions of the parameter values and zero isoclines to infer the relative ubiquity of the various eco-evolutionary outcomes possible in the model. Our results suggest that trade-offs between costs and benefits for the pollinator may be a key component of obligate pollination systems in achieving adaptive success creating and stably occupying mutualist niches.

Authors: Cropp, R; Norbury, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• Journal: Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
• Volume: 81
• Issue: 2019
• Pages: 4803–4820
• Publication date: 2018-09-12
• Acceptance date: 2018-09-06
• DOI: 10.1007/s11538-018-0508-1
• EISSN: 1522-9602
• ISSN: 0092-8240
• Pmid: 30209744
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR