Co-evolution of network structure and consumer inequality in a spatially explicit model of energetic resource acquisition

Energetic resources in ecological and social–ecological systems are distributed through complex networks, which co-evolve with the system and consumers to move resources from points of origin to those of end use. Past research has focused on effects of spatiotemporal resource heterogeneity in ecosystems and society, or socioeconomic drivers of inequality, with less attention to interactions between resource network structure and population-level outcomes. Here, we develop a spatially explicit, stock-flow consistent agent-based model of generic consumers building and crossing links between resources, and we explore the co-evolution of the emergent network structure and inequality in consumers’ resource reserves across three distinct landscapes. We show that the consumer inequality initially decreased during network expansion, then increased rapidly as the network reached a more stable state. The spatial distribution of resources in each of the three landscapes constrained the structures that could emerge, and therefore the specific rates and timings of these dynamics. This work demonstrates the use of energetically consistent modelling to understand possible relationships among a spatially distributed set of resources, the network structure that connects them to a population, and inequality in that population. This can provide a theoretical underpinning informing further work to better understand causes of resource inequality and heterogeneity in observed systems.