Mutualism is a major force driving evolution and sustaining ecosystems. Although the importance of spatial degrees of freedom and number fluctuations is well known, their effects on mutualism are not fully understood. With range expansions of microbes in mind, we show that, even when mutualism confers a selective advantage, it persists only in populations with high density and frequent migrations. When these parameters are reduced, mutualism is generically lost via a directed percolation (DP) process, with a phase diagram strongly influenced by an exceptional symmetric DP (DP2) transition.

• Received 12 April 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.088103