Category: Ecology

Summary: Testing whether asymmetric exchange most strongly rescues compartmental hypercycles when catastrophe targets have intermediate temporal memory.

Compartmental hypercycles can be rescued by exchange between patches, but the value of that exchange depends on how catastrophes are targeted over time. This experiment asks whether rescue is strongest when catastrophe targets have intermediate memory, rather than being either uncorrelated from one event to the next or locked onto the same compartments for long periods.

The model simulates hypercycle compartments with asymmetric exchange while varying the temporal correlation of catastrophe targeting. It compares whether exchange can create a useful source-sink structure that reseeds damaged compartments before repeated hits erase the benefit.

That makes the project a timing-and-structure problem, not just a question of average catastrophe rate. The experiment is designed to show whether intermediate temporal memory creates the right balance between damage persistence and exchange-based recovery.

Method: Repeated compartmental hypercycle simulations with asymmetric exchange under catastrophe targeting of tunable temporal memory.

What is measured: Rescue strength, dependence on catastrophe memory, compartment survival patterns, exchange benefit, and support for an intermediate optimum.