Estimating evolutionary parameters when viability selection is operating.

ABSTRACT: Some individuals die before a trait is measured or expressed (the invisible fraction), and some relevant traits are not measured in any individual (missing traits). This paper discusses how these concepts can be cast in terms of missing data problems from statistics. Using missing data theory, I show formally the conditions under which a valid evolutionary inference is possible when the invisible fraction and/or missing traits are ignored. These conditions are restrictive and unlikely to be met in even the most comprehensive long-term studies. When these conditions are not met, many selection and quantitative genetic parameters cannot be estimated accurately unless the missing data process is explicitly modelled. Surprisingly, this does not seem to have been attempted in evolutionary biolo

SUBMITTER: Hadfield JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2596846 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature