Grove Matt, Timbrell Lucy, Jolley Ben, Polack Fiona, Borg James M
University of Liverpool, Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology.
Keele University, UK, School of Computing and Mathematics.
Artif Life. 2022 Feb 11:1-19. doi: 10.1162/artl_a_00354.
Simulations of evolutionary dynamics often employ white noise as a model of stochastic environmental variation. Whilst white noise has the advantages of being simply generated and analytically tractable, empirical analyses demonstrate that most real environmental time series have power spectral densities consistent with pink or red noise, in which lower frequencies contribute proportionally greater amplitudes than higher frequencies. Simulated white noise environments may therefore fail to capture key components of real environmental time series, leading to erroneous results. To explore the effects of different noise colours on evolving populations, a simple evolutionary model of the interaction between life-history and the specialism-generalism axis was developed. Simulations were conducted using a range of noise colours as the environments to which agents adapted. Results demonstrate complex interactions between noise colour, reproductive rate, and the degree of evolved generalism; importantly, contradictory conclusions arise from simulations using white as opposed to red noise, suggesting that noise colour plays a fundamental role in generating adaptive responses. These results are discussed in the context of previous research on evolutionary responses to fluctuating environments, and it is suggested that Artificial Life as a field should embrace a wider spectrum of coloured noise models to ensure that results are truly representative of environmental and evolutionary dynamics.
进化动力学模拟通常将白噪声用作随机环境变化的模型。虽然白噪声具有生成简单且便于进行分析处理的优点，但实证分析表明，大多数实际环境时间序列的功率谱密度与粉红噪声或红噪声一致，即在这种噪声中，低频成分的振幅比高频成分的振幅贡献比例更大。因此，模拟的白噪声环境可能无法捕捉实际环境时间序列的关键成分，从而导致错误的结果。为了探究不同噪声颜色对进化种群的影响，构建了一个关于生活史与特化 - 泛化轴相互作用的简单进化模型。使用一系列噪声颜色作为主体适应的环境进行模拟。结果表明噪声颜色、繁殖率和进化泛化程度之间存在复杂的相互作用；重要的是，使用白噪声与红噪声进行模拟会得出相互矛盾的结论，这表明噪声颜色在产生适应性反应中起着根本性作用。这些结果将在先前关于对波动环境的进化反应的研究背景下进行讨论，并且有人提出，作为一个领域，人工生命应该采用更广泛的有色噪声模型，以确保结果能真正代表环境和进化动力学。
