Artificial Life, University of Sussex January 2022
This code accompanies the paper ''The Effect of Environmental Regulation and Natural Selection on Species Diversity in Daisyworld'' written by William Kearney in January 2022. It is an interpretation of Daisyworld (Lovelock and Watson, 1983) that allows for evolution through natural selection. The paper asks: does the ability of organisms to regulate the local environment they need to survive help preserve species diversity?
It is well known that organisms regulate their local environment and seek out ecological niches. This paper examines the effect that local environmental regulation has on species diversity given the presence of evolution by natural selection and exogenously changing environmental conditions. In the original Daisyworld model, two species effect their local climate to create a self-regulating system that maintains equilibrium despite an increasingly disruptive exogenous force. This paper uses a modified 2-D agent-based model of Daisyworld to simulate how the introduction of crossover and mutation to modify a species optimal environmental conditions effects species diversity. This is examined both with and without local climate regulation. I find that the ability of an organism to regulate the local environment helps preserve species diversity over time, particularly in the presence of an exogenously changing external environment.