Resolving the anomaly of bare habitable ground in Daisyworld

Abstract

The parable of Daisyworld places biological homeostasis on a non-teleological basis. However, one feature of Daisyworld is that, at equilibrium, the system appears to require habitable but bare ground. The presence of bare ground is an unavoidable consequence of the death rate parameter γ. Here, we simplify Watson and Lovelock's original formulation by removing γ and allowing instead the black and white daisies to infiltrate each others' territory. This device furnishes a model in which the area of bare ground asymptotically approaches zero. The infiltration process is modelled in terms of a parameter that is ecologically interpretable as a quantification of the incumbent advantage enjoyed by the dominant species. © 2010 The Authors Tellus B © 2010 International Meteorological Institute in Stockholm.