Figure 7
Coexistence of metabolic replicators with several parasitic replicator species in MRM. The rows of the figure differ in the number of diffusion steps per generation: first row of panels: D = 0, second row: D = 4; third row: D = 100. x- and y-axes are metabolic (h) and replication (r) neighbourhood sizes respectively (N: von Neumann neighbourhood; 3: 3×3, 5: 5×5, 7: 7×7, 25: 25×25 and 37: 37×37 Moore neighbourhoods). The grayscale shades of the cells correspond to average replicator densities (%) on the whole grid at the end of the simulations (at t = 1.000). The numbers within the cells of the panels indicate the average ratio of the number of metabolic replicators to the number of parasitic replicators at the end of the simulations (Metx/Parx, x = 1, .., 4) in five replicate runs of the simulation program with each parameter set. Met indicates that the parasitic replicator type died out; zeros mean that the system collapses (no replicator survives to t = 1.000). Replication rates: k 1m = 3.0, k 1p = 4.0, k 2m = 5.0, k 2p = 6.0, k 3m = 7.0, k 3p = 8.0, k 4m = 9.0 and k 4p = 10.0; subscripts m and p denote metabolic and parasitic replicator types, respectively.