Effect of external migration on biodiversity in evolutionary dynamics of coupled cyclic competitions

Abstract

Species migration is one of the common features in ecological science, and movement between different environments can affect the sustainability or maintenance of communities. In this paper, we investigate how external migration of species that can explain inter-patch migration can affect the biodiversity of cyclically competing species. Through the coupling between the two deterministic systems of cyclic competition governed by rock-paper-scissors game, we found the emergence of synchronization between attractors that could explain the different characteristics of coexistence states. In addition, these functions may appear to be complete or quasi-synchronized depending on the synergistic effect. Since the coupling can explain the migration between two systems in distinct patches, the results can provide an insight into the collective behavior of the population from the perspective of ecological and social sciences.