Sex allocation promotes the stable co-occurrence of competitive species.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity has long been a source of wonder and scientific curiosity. Theoretically, the co-occurrence of competitive species requires niche differentiation, and such differences are well known; however, the neutral theory, which assumes the equivalence of all individuals regardless of the species in a biological community, has successfully recreated observed patterns of biodiversity. In this research, the evolution of sex allocation is demonstrated to be the key to resolving why the neutral theory works well, despite the observed species differences. The sex allocation theory predicts that female-biased allocation evolves in species in declining density and that this allocation improves population growth, which should lead to an increase in density. In contrast, when the density increas

SUBMITTER: Kobayashi K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5338262 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature