Fluctuations in Environmental Resource Availability Alter the Oscillatory Tragedy of the Commons

Abstract

Environmental noise in real-world complex systems--including fluctuations in temperature, humidity, and related environmental conditions--inevitably modulates individual metabolic capacity and, consequently, the efficiency of public-resource utilization. Yet conventional evolutionary game models incorporating environmental feedback treat resource dynamics deterministically. Here, we incorporate stochastic fluctuations into a noise-corrected replicator-dynamics framework. Theoretical analysis and stochastic birth-death simulations yield a counterintuitive result: moderate environmental noise stabilizes, rather than destabilizes, the interior fixed point across diverse payoff landscapes, while suppressing or eliminating catastrophic oscillations. These findings reframe environmental variability not merely as a perturbation but as a mechanism that fosters strategy coexistence and sustainable resource use in complex social and ecological systems.