Professor Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen, Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Imperial College London

Abstract: Starting from reproduction, mutation and interaction at the level of individuals, the Tangled Nature model attempts to describe ecological and evolutionary observables at the community level. The dynamics consist of mutation prone reproduction in a type space with prescribed (in potentia) interactions between the possible types of individuals.

Species are defined in the model as clusters of genetically similar individuals. We focus on the relation between the interaction structure in genotype space and the resulting Species Abundance Distribution (SAD). Ecological relevant SADs are only obtained if the genotype space allows for a potential high connectivity between species. We also discuss the relation between the degree of genotype interaction and species diversity. Furthermore we include spatial degrees of freedom to investigate the Species Area Relation, i.e. the number of species per unit area, from an evolutionary perspective.

The model has been generalized to include correlations in genotype (or phenotype) space. This allows us to study, from an evolutionary perspective, the relation between community structure and the characteristics of underlying type space.