The Effects Of Two Types Of Niche Construction Patterns On Evolutionary Dynamics Of Species With Resource Competition

Niche construction is a concept that describes the process by which an organism regulates or influences its environment or other living organisms through its own activities and metabolism.Its main mechanism can be described as a mutual feedback between the environment and the organism in the evolutionary process.The proposed theory of niche construction provides an effective mechanistic model to further explain the ecological phenomena at different scales.One of the commonly used methods researchers use in order to analyze the evolutionary invasion of species is the evolutionary distribution dynamics model.Based on this approach,we focus on the effects of three different feature-dependent niche construction on the evolutionary dynamics of species with intra-specific resource competition.The main findings are as follows:(1)trait-regulated niche construction by organisms can indeed cause significant changes in the evolutionary trajectory of species.If the center of niche construction is located in a trait with a small value,evolutionary branching is reduced and population density increases compared to the absence of niche construction.In contrast,if the center of niche construction is in a trait with a large value,trait-related niche construction maintains evolutionary diversity,although it disrupts the original evolutionary symmetry distribution.This is indicative of the fact that the ecotone construction,through a long-term positive feedback effect with the environment,makes the population with a strong dependence on traits differ significantly,and the number of branches,although decreasing,significantly increases the population density of dominant traits,and the number of species evolutionary branches decreases with increasing construction intensity.(2)When considering the effect of positive and negative ecotone construction on traits,symmetric ecotone construction results in a symmetric distribution of evolutionary branches,while asymmetric ecotone construction clusters evolutionary branches on the side with smaller trait values.(3)The effect of the intensity of ecotone construction on the density of dominant traits in the evolutionary distribution dynamics is significant,and adding weak ecotone construction to the evolutionary distribution dynamics results in a steep increase in the density of dominant traits in the system.(4)The original resource distribution breadth of the system also has a profound impact on the evolutionary distribution dynamics.The evolutionary branching of features decreases as the resource distribution expands.(5)Changes in the width of the nucleus of niche construction also affect the evolutionary distribution of traits.When the ecotone construction nucleus is symmetric,the evolutionary branching of features decreases as the width of ecotone construction nucleus keeps increasing.In contrast,when the nucleus is asymmetric,the number of evolutionary branches increases as the width of the nucleus increases.The joint effect of intra-specific competition nucleus width and ecotone construction intensity on the evolutionary distribution dynamics was also explored in the course of the study.As a matter of fact,as the intra-specific competition nucleus width increased,the differences existing between successive traits became greater,thus making the intra-specific competition decrease and the number of branches decrease.At the same time,an increase in the intensity of ecotone construction leads to an increase in the ability to construct trait-related ecotones in the local environment,leading to a decrease in the number of evolutionary branches.Narrower competition nuclei and weaker niche construction intensity can maintain species diversity in ecosystems.This research deploys a dynamic model of evolutionary distribution in the study of niche construction theory,in order to explore its evolutionary distribution pattern under the role of construction by directly taking evolutionary traits as the research target,making the objective of the research innovative,while also providing effective theoretical support and a rich research model for further development of niche construction theory.