Stochastic effects on biodiversity in cyclic coevolutionary dynamics
Volume 80 / 2008
Banach Center Publications 80 (2008), 259-264
MSC: Primary 92D25; Secondary 82-06.
DOI: 10.4064/bc80-0-17
Abstract
Finite-size fluctuations arising in the dynamics of competing populations may have dramatic influence on their fate. As an example, in this article, we investigate a model of three species which dominate each other in a cyclic manner. Although the deterministic approach predicts (neutrally) stable coexistence of all species, for any finite population size, the intrinsic stochasticity unavoidably causes the eventual extinction of two of them.
