Bardeen, Matthew. “The value of death in evolution: A lesson from Daisyworld.” In Artifical Life IX: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems , pp. 292-296. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004.
The first Daisyworld model showed how simple interactions and varying growth rates of daisies could lead to a type of global homeostasis. This idea has been extended to include variable mortality rates as a form of natural selection. This paper shows that this extension can increase the temperature regulation and persistence of Daisyworld systems, even with higher overall mortality rates.