A NUMERICAL-MODEL FOR BIODIVERSITY

A numerical model is presented based on Alfred Lotka's notion that the mathematics of evolutionary models would be simpler, not more complex, if the evolution of the organisms and of their physical environment was considered as a single process. The model is concerned with the climate and the community ecology of an imaginary planet, Daisyworld, in orbit around a star like the Sun. The stabilizing influence of environmental feedback is used to enable experiments in community ecology that might otherwise be impossible. The model planetary ecosystem is populated with numerous types of organism distributed in up to three trophic levels. There follows a preliminary report of an exploration of this model planet and an account of its biodiversity and species richness.