Dormancy is widespread in nature, but while it can be an effective adaptive strategy in fluctuating environments, the dormant forms are costly due to the inability to breed and the relatively high energy consumption. We explore mathematical models of predator-prey systems, in order to assess whether dormancy can be an effective adaptive strategy to outcompete perennially active (PA) prey, even when both forms of the dormitive prey (active and dormant) are individually disadvantaged. We develop a dynamic population model by introducing an additional dormitive prey population to the existing predator-prey model which can be active (active form) and enter dormancy (dormant form). In this model, both forms of the dormitive prey are individually at a disadvantage compared to the PA prey and thus would go extinct due to their low growth rate, energy waste on the production of dormant prey, and the inability of the latter to grow autonomously. However, the dormitive prey can paradoxically outcompete the PA prey with superior traits and even cause its extinction by alternating between the two losing strategies. We observed higher fitness of the dormitive prey in rich environments because a large predator population in a rich environment cannot be supported by the prey without adopting an evasive strategy, that is, dormancy. In such environments, populations experience large-scale fluctuations, which can be survived by dormitive but not by PA prey. We show that dormancy can be an effective adaptive strategy to outcompete superior prey, recapitulating the game-theoretic Parrondo’s paradox, where two losing strategies combine to achieve a winning outcome. We suggest that the species with the ability to switch between the active and dormant forms can dominate communities via competitive exclusion.

中文翻译：

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交替的主动-休眠策略使处于不利地位的猎物能够通过 Parrondo 悖论战胜常年活跃的猎物

休眠在自然界中很普遍，但虽然它可以成为波动环境中有效的适应策略，但由于无法繁殖和相对较高的能源消耗，休眠形式的成本很高。我们探索捕食者 - 猎物系统的数学模型，以评估休眠是否可以成为一种有效的适应策略，以胜过常年活跃 (PA) 猎物，即使两种形式的休眠猎物（活跃和休眠）都处于不利地位。我们通过将额外的休眠猎物种群引入现有的捕食者 - 猎物模型来开发动态种群模型，该模型可以是活跃的（活跃形式）并进入休眠状态（休眠形式）。在这个模型中，与 PA 猎物相比，两种形式的休眠猎物都处于劣势，因此由于它们的低增长率而灭绝，生产休眠猎物的能源浪费，以及后者无法自主生长。然而，休眠的猎物可以矛盾地胜过具有优越性状的 PA 猎物，甚至通过在两种失败策略之间交替而导致其灭绝。我们观察到在丰富环境中休眠的猎物具有更高的适应度，因为如果不采取规避策略（即休眠），猎物就无法支持丰富环境中的大量捕食者种群。在这样的环境中，种群经历了大规模的波动，这种波动可以通过休眠的方式幸存下来，但不能通过 PA 猎物。我们表明，休眠可以是一种有效的适应性策略，可以战胜优越的猎物，概括了博弈论中的 Parrondo 悖论，其中两种失败的策略相结合以取得胜利的结果。