Evolving generalists in switching rugged landscapes
Fig 3
Dynamic basin enlargement via ratchet effects under environmental cycling.
(A) Schematically, in a static landscape, only a single basin of attraction (shaded orange/gray in landscape A/B) leads to a generalist (blue peak). Under environmental switches (ABAB or BABA, indicated with dotted arrows), a population initialized in any genotype inside the linked basins (six amorphous shapes with orange or gray borders) can reach the generalist. This chain of basins contains
and
hinged at the generalist peak,
and
as two ends, along with
and
as intermediate links. Thus, the total coverage of linked basins defines the effective accessibility of a generalist in switching landscapes. (B) The fraction of generalists that gain basin size under landscape switching, where K increases from top to bottom. Each data point is an average over 1000 realizations of landscape pairs. (C) Correlation between fitness and basin size of local optima in a static landscape (orange filled symbols) and in switching landscapes (blue open symbols).