Negative frequency-dependent selection or alternative reproductive tactics: maintenance of female polymorphism in natural populations.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sex-limited polymorphisms have long intrigued evolutionary biologists and have been the subject of long-standing debates. The coexistence of multiple male and/or female morphs is widely believed to be maintained through negative frequency-dependent selection imposed by social interactions. However, remarkably few empirical studies have evaluated how social interactions, morph frequencies and fitness parameters relate to one another under natural conditions. Here, we test two hypotheses proposed to explain the maintenance of a female polymorphism in a species with extreme geographical variation in morph frequencies. We first elucidate how fecundity traits of the morphs vary in relation to the frequencies and densities of males and female morphs in multiple sites over mult

SUBMITTER: Iserbyt A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3704290 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature