EVOLUTION AND ECOLOGY

Erik Rauch, Justin Werfel, Daniel Rosenbloom, Hiroki Sayama, Marcus A. M. de Aguiar, Michel Baranger, Charles Goodnight, Les Kaufman, Yaneer Bar-Yam

Our research in evolution clarifies basic issues in evolutionary dynamics, how altruism arises, the origin and characterization of biodiversity, and the interplay of evolution with ecology.

A basic insight we demonstrated is that the gene-centered view developed mathematically by Fisher and popularized by Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene" is a dynamic version of the mean field approximation. This approximation does not hold when there is symmetry breaking, which occurs commonly in spatial populations due to disruptive selection. This insight enabled us to recognize the importance of the role of the spatial extent of populations in the origins of altruism, biodiversity, the coupling of evolution and ecology, biodiversity loss due to habitat destruction, and the formalization of Sewall Wright's perspective on evolution. Specific works address:
1) The gene centered view
2) Biodiversity and spatial symmetry breaking
3) Genealogical trees and biodiversity
4) Estimating the diversity of a population from a sample
5) Reproductive fitness is not necessarily predictive of long term survival
6) Environment modification and inheritance.
7) Origins of altruism, including altruism by social signaling.
8) Sewall Wright's shifting balance theory.

Additional work explores
8) Cellular automata models of evolutionary self-replication

Click here for selected NECSI papers on Evolution and Ecology.