Fig. 3: Effect of mutation rate on the population dynamics.

a As mutation rate increases the overall population decreases monotonically, while b the diversity of species increases until it reaches a peak value for a mutation rate of 0.04. c shows the Shannon entropy of the population size distribution across the existing species. It can be seen that the entropy gradually increases until the mutation rate of 0.04. Beyond which, a sudden jump to a uniformly distributed population distribution is observed (Entropy  ≈ 1). For mutation rates higher than 0.04, the time spent by the system in the reorganization region increases (d). This area is highlighted as the Error Transition region in the lower panel. For a mutation rate of 0.042, the system spends almost the same number of generations in reorganization between the metastable states as it does in them. The lines show the ensemble average values of the measures calculated from the simulations of the Tangled Nature Model, using the standard parameters described in the methods. The standard deviation of measures from the mean is shown using the error bands around the lines.