Triangles point where each creature is heading. Prey eat plankton and run from predators; predators eat prey. Grazers are big, slow loners that nibble plankton; predators find them harder to catch and less filling, so they are a fallback meal. Predators hunt poorly inside the soft green weed beds, so prey can hide there. Grazers eat the weed: grazed beds shrink and fade (exposing prey), then slowly regrow. Everyone starves without food. Offspring inherit speed and vision with small mutations, so the pond evolves.
Population over time (green plankton, blue prey, violet grazers: left axis; orange predators: right axis, so they stay visible; gold: weed bed biomass, 100% = top of left axis).
Parameters
Evolving traits (population mean)
Gene multiplier: x1.00 = founder average.
start
now
Prey speed
-
-
Prey vision
-
-
Predator speed
-
-
Predator vision
-
-
Grazer speed
-
-
Grazer vision
-
-
Gene multipliers over time. Bright blue: prey speed, dim blue: prey vision. Bright orange: predator speed, dim orange: predator vision. Faint line = 1.0.