Effect of swarming on biodiversity in non-symmetric rock-paper-scissor game

Cyclic dominance of species is a potential mechanism for maintaining biodiversity. The author investigates the generalised scenario when the cyclic dominance of three or more interacting species is described by a non-symmetric matrix game that has multiple Nash equilibria. Modified Lotka-Volterra equations are proposed to incorporate the effects of swarming, and the condition for biodiversity is derived. The species are modelled using replicator equations, where each member of the species is assigned a fitness value. The authors show, for the first time, that the ´swarming effect´ has an important role to play in the maintenance of biodiversity. The authors have also discovered the existence of a critical value of the swarming parameter for a given mobility, above which there is a high probability of existence of biodiversity.