Evolutionary stability of mutualism: interspecific population regulation as an evolutionarily stable strategy. (CROSBI ID 162185)
Prilog u časopisu | izvorni znanstveni rad | međunarodna recenzija
Podaci o odgovornosti
Holland, J.N. ; DeAngelis, D.L. ; Schultz, Stewart T.
engleski
Evolutionary stability of mutualism: interspecific population regulation as an evolutionarily stable strategy.
Interspecific mutualisms are often vulnerable to instability because low benefit : cost ratios can rapidly lead to extinction or to the conversion of mutualism to parasite–host or predator–prey interactions. We hypothe- size that the evolutionary stability of mutualism can depend on how benefits and costs to one mutualist vary with the population density of its partner, and that stability can be maintained if a mutualist can influence demographic rates and regulate the population density of its partner. We test this hypothesis in a model of mutualism with key features of senita cactus (Pachycereus schottii ) – senita moth (Upiga virescens) interac- tions, in which benefits of pollination and costs of larval seed consumption to plant fitness depend on polli- nator density. We show that plants can maximize their fitness by allocating resources to the production of excess flowers at the expense of fruit. Fruit abortion resulting from excess flower production reduces pre- adult survival of the pollinating seed-consumer, and maintains its density beneath a threshold that would destabilize the mutualism. Such a strategy of excess flower production and fruit abortion is convergent and evolutionarily stable against invasion by cheater plants that produce few flowers and abort few to no fruit. This novel mechanism of achieving evolutionarily stable mutualism, namely interspecific population regu- lation, is qualitatively different from other mechanisms invoking partner choice or selective rewards, and may be a general process that helps to preserve mutualistic interactions in nature.
fruit abortion; hermaphrodite; pollination; population dynamics; resource trade-offs; sex allocation
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Podaci o izdanju
271 (1550)
2004.
1807-1814
objavljeno
0962-8452
10.1098/rspb.2004.2789
Povezanost rada
Biologija