SMILE

Stochastic Models for the Inference of Life Evolution

Bibtex

@article{debarre_fitness_2015,
Author = {Débarre, Florence},
Title = {Fitness costs in spatially structured environments},
Journal = {Evolution},
Volume = {69},
Number = {5},
Pages = {1329--1335},
Keywords = {Fitness costs, host defense, kin competition, spatial
moment equations, viscous population},
abstract = {The clustering of individuals that results from
limited dispersal is a double-edged sword: although it
allows for local interactions to be mostly among
related individuals, it also results in increased local
competition. Here I show that, because they mitigate
local competition, fitness costs such as reduced
fecundity or reduced survival are less costly in
spatially structured environments than in nonspatial
settings. I first present a simple demographic example
to illustrate how spatial structure weakens selection
against fitness costs. Then, I illustrate the
importance of disentangling the evolution of a trait
from the evolution of potential associated costs, using
an example taken from a recent study investigating the
effect of spatial structure on the evolution of host
defense. In this example indeed, the differences
between spatial and nonspatial selection gradients are
due to differences in the fitness costs, thereby
undermining interpretations of the results made in
terms of the trait only. This illustrates the need to
consider fitness costs as proper traits in both
theoretical and empirical studies.},
copyright = {© 2015 The Author(s).},
doi = {10.1111/evo.12646},
issn = {1558-5646},
language = {en},
month = may,
url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evo.12646/abstract},
urldate = {2015-10-07},
year = 2015
}