gen3sis: A general engine for eco-evolutionary simulations of the processes that shape Earth's biodiversity

Hagen, Oskar and Fluck, Benjamin and Fopp, Fabian and Cabral, Juliano S. and Hartig, Florian and Pontarp, Mikael and Rangel, Thiago F. and Pellissier, Loic (2021) gen3sis: A general engine for eco-evolutionary simulations of the processes that shape Earth's biodiversity. PLOS BIOLOGY, 19 (7): e3001340. ISSN 1544-9173, 1545-7885

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Abstract

Understanding the origins of biodiversity has been an aspiration since the days of early naturalists. The immense complexity of ecological, evolutionary, and spatial processes, however, has made this goal elusive to this day. Computer models serve progress in many scientific fields, but in the fields of macroecology and macroevolution, eco-evolutionary models are comparatively less developed. We present a general, spatially explicit, eco-evolutionary engine with a modular implementation that enables the modeling of multiple macroecological and macroevolutionary processes and feedbacks across representative spatiotemporally dynamic landscapes. Modeled processes can include species' abiotic tolerances, biotic interactions, dispersal, speciation, and evolution of ecological traits. Commonly observed biodiversity patterns, such as alpha, beta, and gamma diversity, species ranges, ecological traits, and phylogenies, emerge as simulations proceed. As an illustration, we examine alternative hypotheses expected to have shaped the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) during the Earth's Cenozoic era. Our exploratory simulations simultaneously produce multiple realistic biodiversity patterns, such as the LDG, current species richness, and range size frequencies, as well as phylogenetic metrics. The model engine is open source and available as an R package, enabling future exploration of various landscapes and biological processes, while outputs can be linked with a variety of empirical biodiversity patterns. This work represents a key toward a numeric, interdisciplinary, and mechanistic understanding of the physical and biological processes that shape Earth's biodiversity.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: LATITUDINAL DIVERSITY GRADIENT; SPECIES-RICHNESS; BETA-DIVERSITY; SPATIAL-PATTERNS; GLOBAL PATTERNS; RANGE-SIZE; PHYLOGENETIC TREES; NICHE BREADTH; R PACKAGE; CLIMATE;
Subjects: 500 Science > 570 Life sciences
Divisions: Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften > Group Theoretical Ecology (Prof. Dr. Florian Hartig)
Depositing User: Dr. Gernot Deinzer
Date Deposited: 20 Sep 2022 13:59
Last Modified: 20 Sep 2022 13:59
URI: https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/47700

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