Fig. 5

Selected examples of competition between populations with different D values in a randomly varying environment. a–c Each plot depicts the ratio of each population to the total population (y-axis) as a function of developmental coupling D (x-axis) at the end of a 150-generations, compiled over 1000 simulation iterations; every 2 generations, the environment was replaced, using a uniform random distribution for cost [0.5, 5], max average benefit [0.51, 105] and F functional coupling [0, 1]. Populations are initialized such that there are 100 fully mosaic individuals (D = 0.0), 100 partially mosaic individuals (D = 0.5) and 100 concerted individuals (D = 1.0). Simulations were performed varying two life history conditions: maximum lifespan, or the number of generations an individual persists alive, and offspring number, which are produced once every generation. Three combinations of lifespan and offspring are shown, for full comparisons see S13. d A summary of the ratio of concerted individuals (D = 1) to mosaic individuals (D = 0) at the end of each iteration of the 150 generation simulation, showing the effects of maximum lifespan and offspring number. e–h Selected, representative, individual simulations showing fluctuations in D value frequencies over generations. Colours indicate the D value, or D value, where yellow is D = 0, where blue is D = 0.5 and where green is D = 1. See Additional file 1: Figure S13-S16 for full results varying B̅/C and F, iteration numbers and mutation step size, and Additional file 1: S17 for effects of increasing the size of environmental fluctuations