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Inbreeding effects on competition in Tribolium
Author(s) -
Craig David M.,
Mertz David B.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
population ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1438-390X
pISSN - 1438-3896
DOI - 10.1007/bf02514941
Subject(s) - inbreeding depression , biology , inbreeding , competition (biology) , indeterminacy (philosophy) , population , demography , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , sociology
When replicate cultures of T. confusum and T. castaneum are husbanded together under identical treatment conditions, sometimes T. confusum eliminates T. castaneum , and other times, T. castaneum wins (i.e., competitive indeterminacy occurs). While several plausible explanations were advanced, the results of Mertz et al. (1976) implicated demographic stochasticity and not classical genetic founder effect as the predominant factor influencing the identity of the winning species. They also observed, however, that the size of the founding population had an influence on the competitive strength of T. castaneum . The present study shows that the decline in competitive strength that accompanied decreasing founder size in T. castaneum can be amply explained by simple inbreeding depression. The eggs of inbred adults showed an approximate 15% reduction in hatchability when compared to outbred adults. No evidence was found that the decrease in competitive strength was due either to prior history differences or reduced genetic heterogeneity of the founding adults.