MULTILEVEL EVOLUTION - REPLICATORS AND THE EVOLUTION OF DIVERSITY

In this paper we report on an initial attempt at studying evolution as a multilevel process, in which interactions of different space/time scales mutually determine the evolutionary potential. Side effects of processes on one scale may form a substrate for evolution at another scale. We study the generation and maintenance of diversity in a multilevel replicator system and focus on the role of local information processing and pattern formation. We show how the conflicting requirements of the generation and maintenance of diversity are met in different ways in completely mixed (stirred) and poorly mixed (diffusive) systems. In the former diversity is maintained primarily by non-invadability, and operates at the lowest level; in the latter case diversity is maintained by locally contained invasions which are subsequently eliminated by higher level processes.