Figure 6

Dependence of population dynamics on broader trait degeneracy in a stable, homogenous environment at lower (A, C) and higher (B) iterations of the solution of the analytical model. In A, the relationship between degeneracy value σ (horizontal axis) and standard deviation of the trait values in the population (vertical axis) is shown by curves of various shades of grey color for the indicated iterations of the numerical solution of equation (3). The vertical dashed line shows the separation between dichotomous (on the left) and stabilizing (on the right) dynamics. Trait homogeneity of the population continues increasing with time, as shown for greater iterations in panel (B). Importantly, the narrowing of population diversity continues after the overall population size has reached its maximum and the entire available resource has been consumed (C). Therefore, the increasing homogeneity of the population is not driven by adaptive maximization of resource exploitation.