Adaptive survival movement strategy to local epidemic outbreaks in cyclic models

Abstract

We study the generalised rock-paper-scissors game with five species whose organisms face local epidemic outbreaks. As an evolutionary behavioural survival strategy, organisms of one out of the species move in the direction with more enemies of their enemies to benefit from protection against selection. We consider that each organism scans the environment, performing social distancing instead of agglomerating when perceiving that the density of sick organisms is higher than a tolerable threshold. Running stochastic simulations, we study the interference of the adaptive movement survival strategy in spatial pattern formation, calculating the characteristic length scale of the typical spatial domains inhabited by organisms of each species. We compute how social distancing trigger impacts the chances of an individual being killed in the cyclic game and contaminated by the disease. The outcomes show that the species predominates in the cyclic game because of the organisms' local adaptation. The territory occupied by the species grows with the proportion of individuals learning to trigger the social distancing tactic. We also show that organisms that perceive large distances more properly execute the adaptive strategy, promptly triggering the social distancing tactic and choosing the correct direction to move. Our findings may contribute to understanding the role of adaptive behaviour when environmental changes threaten biodiversity.

20 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• How multiple weak species jeopardise biodiversity in spatial rock-paper-scissors models
• Spatial organisation plasticity reduces disease infection risk in rock-paper-scissors models
• Adaptive altruistic strategy in cyclic models during an epidemic
• Trade-off between reproduction and mobility prolongs organisms' survival in rock-paper-scissors models
• Spatial dynamics of synergistic coinfection in rock-paper-scissors models
• Impact of reproduction-mobility trade-off on biodiversity in rock-paper-scissors models in changing environmental conditions
• Mobility restrictions in response to local epidemic outbreaks in rock-paper-scissors models