Morphospace

Consider a space in which two traits are mapped in a plane.  These two traits could be any description of an organism.  In an environment certain combinations of the traits will allow an organism to make better use of the environments resources.  Now consider a resource landscape mapped onto the same plane as the trait space.  Trait coordinates on areas of higher points in the resource landscape correspond to the ability of those organisms in the area being better able to reproduce, because they are better at using the resources given by the environment.  These areas may allow the organisms to have more offspring.  Lower areas in the landscape mean that the trait coordinates over the area are less apt to reproduce, because the resources in the environment are not as well suited for those organisms.  These areas reduce the chance the organisms have to reproduce, thus birth rates can be lower.

Each organism has associated with them, a mutation parameter we call 'birth noise'.  The birth noise of an organism determines an area around it and it's mate (mates are chosen as the nearest neighbor in trait space) in the trait space in which their offspring may appear.  This is to model the variation in traits of offspring from their parents.  The birth noise of the choosing parent then passes it's birth noise on to the offspring, modeling the inheritance of genetic information.

 

There's more about death and other details, but I needed to attempt to describe these two topics.
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Adam D Scott