Scientific Reports pubblished a paper authored by Dercole, Della Rossa, and Landi
May 25th, 2016
Abstract
Scientific Reports pubblished the paper "The transition from evolutionary stability to branching: A catastrophic evolutionary shift", authored by F. Dercole, F. Della Rossa, and P. Landi.
Innovation and competition processes shape biological as well as socio-economic and artificial systems, according to Darwin’s paradigm of evolution. Evolutionary branching occurs when similar traits or strategies of resident and innovative agents coexist in the same environment and competition favors their further differentiation. In Nature, it is the basic step toward sympatric and parapatric speciation, the alternative being an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS). The mathematical conditions for branching were derived 20 years ago in terms of the underlying competition model, though a methodological mistake prevented the analysis of the ESS-branching transition. “The transition from evolutionary stability to branching: A catastrophic evolutionary shift” by Fabio Dercole, Fabio Della Rossa e Pietro Landi solved the problem and unraveled one of the mostimportant “phase transition” in Nature. Along with gradual changes in climate, nutrients, habitat fragmentation, or biotic control and exploitation, it opens and closes the doors to biodiversity.
Innovation and competition processes shape biological as well as socio-economic and artificial systems, according to Darwin’s paradigm of evolution. Evolutionary branching occurs when similar traits or strategies of resident and innovative agents coexist in the same environment and competition favors their further differentiation. In Nature, it is the basic step toward sympatric and parapatric speciation, the alternative being an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS). The mathematical conditions for branching were derived 20 years ago in terms of the underlying competition model, though a methodological mistake prevented the analysis of the ESS-branching transition. “The transition from evolutionary stability to branching: A catastrophic evolutionary shift” by Fabio Dercole, Fabio Della Rossa e Pietro Landi solved the problem and unraveled one of the mostimportant “phase transition” in Nature. Along with gradual changes in climate, nutrients, habitat fragmentation, or biotic control and exploitation, it opens and closes the doors to biodiversity.