Food-web based unified model of macro- and microevolution

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Theoretical Biology

Background:

• Existing models often treat micro- and macroevolution separately.
• Food web structure is fundamental to ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
• Understanding species origination and extinction is key to macroevolutionary theory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a unified theoretical framework for micro- and macroevolution.
• To integrate hierarchical food web architecture into evolutionary modeling.
• To provide a comprehensive model of organism life cycles and species dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Incorporation of a generic hierarchical food web architecture.
• Detailed modeling of individual organism birth, ageing, and death.
• Inclusion of prey-predator interactions and dynamic food web processes.
• Naturalistic incorporation of random mutations and speciation events.
• Modeling of species origination and extinction dynamics.

Main Results:

• The unified model successfully describes both microevolutionary processes and macroevolutionary patterns.
• Prey-predator interactions within a dynamic food web are central to the model.
• Species lifetime distributions were found to approximate a power law over a limited regime.
• The model naturally accounts for the origination and extinction of species.

Conclusions:

• A unified theoretical framework for evolution, encompassing both micro- and macroevolutionary scales, is achievable.
• Hierarchical food web structure plays a critical role in shaping evolutionary trajectories.
• The model provides new insights into the dynamics of species lifespans and biodiversity change.