Darwinian Daisyworld

The Daisyworld model was developed to show that organisms can collectively regulate the global environment without assuming conscious or altruistic behaviour, i.e. that Gaia is feasible. We studied the effects of adaptive evolution on Daisyworld by allowing daisies to shift their optimal growth temperatures toward the prevailing temperature. This eliminates Daisyworld's homeostatic ability, suggesting a trade-off between the ability of organisms to collectively regulate the environment and the abilities of evolving genotypes to adapt to it. (C) 1998 Academic Press.