Influence of invasion on natural selection in dispersal-structured populations

Abstract

We investigate how initial and boundary conditions influence the competition dynamics and outcome in dispersal-structured populations. The study is carried out through numerical modeling of the heterogeneous Brownian bugs model, in which individuals are characterized by diversified diffusion coefficients and compete for resources within a finite interaction range. We observed that if instead of being distributed randomly across the domain the population is initially localized within a small region, the dynamics and the stationary state of the system differ significantly. The outcome of the natural selection is determined by different competition processes, fluctuations, and spreading of the organisms.