Populational Heritability: Empirical Studies of Evolution in Metapopulations

Abstract

Using demes from experimental metapopulations of the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, we investigated phase 3 of Wright's shifting balance process. Using parent demes of high, intermediate, and low mean fitness, we experimentally modeled migration of varying amounts from demes of high mean fitness into demes of lower mean fitness (like phase 3) as well as the reciprocal (the opposite of phase 3). In natural populations, some migration among demes occurs independently of deme fitness. In this case, demes of high mean fitness are likely to receive migrants from demes of lower mean fitness; these effects might limit the effectiveness of phase 3 but have not been studied experimentally. We estimated the populational heritability of mean fitness by the regression of offspring deme means on the weighted parental means and found moderate levels of demic heritability one (0.641-0.690) and two (0.518-0.552) generations after migration. We discuss our findings in relation to the role of interdemic migration in "adaptive peak shifts" in metapopulations and the controversies over group selection and the units of inheritance.