Evolving nutritional strategies in the presence of competition: a geometric agent-based model

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dc.contributor.authorSenior, A.
dc.contributor.authorCharleston, M.
dc.contributor.authorLihoreau, M.
dc.contributor.authorBuhl, J.
dc.contributor.authorRaubenheimer, D.
dc.contributor.authorSimpson, S.
dc.contributor.editorSantos, F.C.
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractAccess to nutrients is a key factor governing development, reproduction and ultimately fitness. Within social groups, contest-competition can fundamentally affect nutrient access, potentially leading to reproductive asymmetry among individuals. Previously, agent-based models have been combined with the Geometric Framework of nutrition to provide insight into how nutrition and social interactions affect one another. Here, we expand this modelling approach by incorporating evolutionary algorithms to explore how contest-competition over nutrient acquisition might affect the evolution of animal nutritional strategies. Specifically, we model tolerance of nutrient excesses and deficits when ingesting nutritionally imbalanced foods, which we term 'nutritional latitude'; a higher degree of nutritional latitude constitutes a higher tolerance of nutritional excess and deficit. Our results indicate that a transition between two alternative strategies occurs at moderate to high levels of competition. When competition is low, individuals display a low level of nutritional latitude and regularly switch foods in search of an optimum. When food is scarce and contest-competition is intense, high nutritional latitude appears optimal, and individuals continue to consume an imbalanced food for longer periods before attempting to switch to an alternative. However, the relative balance of nutrients within available foods also strongly influences at what levels of competition, if any, transitions between these two strategies occur. Our models imply that competition combined with reproductive skew in social groups can play a role in the evolution of diet breadth. We discuss how the integration of agent-based, nutritional and evolutionary modelling may be applied in future studies to further understand the evolution of nutritional strategies across social and ecological contexts.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityAlistair M. Senior, Michael A. Charleston, Mathieu Lihoreau, Jerome Buhl, David Raubenheimer, Stephen J. Simpson
dc.identifier.citationPLoS Computational Biology, 2015; 11(3):e1004111-1-e1004111-24
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004111
dc.identifier.issn1553-7358
dc.identifier.issn1553-7358
dc.identifier.orcidBuhl, J. [0000-0002-7506-6835]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/97178
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherPublic Library of Science
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT110100082
dc.rights© 2015 Senior et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004111
dc.subjectAnimals
dc.subjectFeeding Behavior
dc.subjectCompetitive Behavior
dc.subjectComputational Biology
dc.subjectModels, Biological
dc.subjectFemale
dc.subjectMale
dc.subjectNutritional Physiological Phenomena
dc.subjectInsecta
dc.titleEvolving nutritional strategies in the presence of competition: a geometric agent-based model
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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