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Opportunity for selection in southern elephant seals ( Mirounga leonina ): the effect of spatial scale of analysis
Author(s) -
Galimberti Filippo,
Fabiani Anna,
Sanvito Simona
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1017/s0952836902000122
Subject(s) - biology , selection (genetic algorithm) , scale (ratio) , spatial ecology , homogeneous , natural selection , stabilizing selection , ecology , population , directional selection , statistics , zoology , demography , cartography , mathematics , combinatorics , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , geography
The opportunity for selection, I , calculated as the variance in relative fitness, sets an upper limit to the amount of adaptive change that selection may produce. Therefore, it is a potentially valuable, and frequently used, measure of the potential of action of phenotypic selection. Although many different aspects of I calculation and analysis have been explored, the effect of the spatial scale chosen for calculation received little attention, notwithstanding the growing evidence that natural populations are not homogeneous and present a hierarchical spatial structure. The effect of scale on the estimation of I was examined from data collected in two populations of southern elephant seals ( Mirounga leonina ), an easily observable and strongly polygynous species. A significant effect of spatial scale on three important aspects of I calculation and analysis was found: dependence of I on mean fitness, between population variation of I , and effect of local demography on I .