Torbjörn Lundh

Biträdande professor in mathematics at Department of Mathematical Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg.

Cross-feeding as a game

Abstract

In many ecologies organism exchange of metabolites in a process known as cross-feeding, which leads to complex dependencies on fitness. We have created an artificial ecology called Urdar (after the well where the norse universe, i.e. the ash tree Yggdrasil was growing) in order to study cross-feeding in a highly controlled experimental yet digital environment. We will discuss three questions in relation to this system: i) Is a cross-feeding ecology with a higher nutrient influx be more or less diverse? ii) Will a cross-feeding population converge towards an optimal configuration with respect to the overall productivity? iii) What can be said about the dynamics of three cross-feeding species if pairwise interactions are known?