Fig. 1.

Example run illustrating that extinction is faster with ecological dynamics. Oscillations of host and parasite genotype abundances in the Evo ⁺ process with constant population size and EcoEvo ⁺ process with changing population size. The simulations start with an equal abundance of both genotypes H₁(0)=H₂(0)=N_H/2 and P₁(0)=P₂(0)=N_P/2. Method: Simulation of the stochastic processes with the Gillespie algorithm. Parameters: Total population sizes N_H=50,N_P=150 (only initially for the EcoEvo ⁺ model), selection strengths w_H=0.5,w_P=1, matching allele parameters α=1,β=0, death rate of the parasite d_P=1, birth rate of the host b_H=6, carrying capacity K=100, interaction rate ${\lambda }_0=4,\lambda =\frac{{\lambda }_0}{K}$, intra-specific competition rate $\mu =\frac{b_H}{K}$. See the “Methods” section and Additional file 1 for method and parameter details