Abstract
BackgroundIt is often assumed that evolution takes place on very large timescales. Countering this assumption, rapid evolutionary dynamics are increasingly documented in biological systems, e.g. in the context of predator–prey interactions, species coexistence and invasion. It has also been shown that rapid evolution can facilitate the evolution of cooperation. In this context often evolutionary dynamics influence population dynamics, but in spatial models rapid evolutionary dynamics also emerge with constant population sizes. Currently it is not clear how well these spatial models apply to species in which individuals are not embedded in fixed spatial structures. To address this issue we employ an agent-based model of group living individuals. We investigate how positive assortment between cooperators and defectors and pay-off differences between cooperators and defectors depend on the occurrence of evolutionary dynamics.ResultsWe find that positive assortment and pay-off differences between cooperators and defectors differ when comparing scenarios with and without selection, which indicates that rapid evolutionary dynamics are occurring in the selection scenarios. Specifically, rapid evolution occurs because changes in positive assortment feed back on evolutionary dynamics, which crucially impacts the evolution of cooperation. At high frequencies of cooperators these feedback dynamics increase positive assortment facilitating the evolution of cooperation. In contrast, at low frequencies of cooperators rapid evolutionary dynamics lead to a decrease in assortment, which acts against the evolution of cooperation. The contrasting dynamics at low and high frequencies of cooperators create positive frequency-dependent selection.ConclusionsRapid evolutionary dynamics can influence the evolution of cooperation in group-living species and lead to positive frequency-dependent selection even if population size and maximum group-size are not affected by evolutionary dynamics. Rapid evolutionary dynamics can emerge in this case because sufficiently strong selective pressures allow evolutionary and demographic dynamics, and consequently also feedback between assortment and evolution, to occur on the same timescale. In particular, emerging positive frequency-dependent selection could be an important explanation for differences in cooperative behaviors among different species with similar population structures such as humans and chimpanzees.
Highlights
It is often assumed that evolution takes place on very large timescales
Several theoretical and empirical studies on predator–prey interactions, species coexistence and invasion [1,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] have shown that the kinds of feedback dynamics that emerge between evolutionary and ecological dynamics can crucially depend on whether evolutionary and ecological dynamics occur on the same timescale
Smaller maximum group sizes lead to smaller average group sizes, which can increase positive assortment because fewer individuals are affected by migration events
Summary
It is often assumed that evolution takes place on very large timescales Countering this assumption, rapid evolutionary dynamics are increasingly documented in biological systems, e.g. in the context of predator–prey interactions, species coexistence and invasion. In this context often evolutionary dynamics influence population dynamics, but in spatial models rapid evolutionary dynamics emerge with constant population sizes It is not clear how well these spatial models apply to species in which individuals are not embedded in fixed spatial structures. It is commonly assumed that evolution only takes place on very large timescales that include hundreds or thousands of generations In contrast to this assumption, an increasing number of studies document evolutionary dynamics that occur over just a handful of generations. Several theoretical and empirical studies on predator–prey interactions, species coexistence and invasion [1,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] have shown that the kinds of feedback dynamics that emerge between evolutionary and ecological dynamics can crucially depend on whether evolutionary and ecological dynamics occur on the same timescale
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