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The effects of asymmetric competition on the life history of Trinidadian guppies
Author(s) -
Bassar Ronald D.,
Childs Dylan Z.,
Rees Mark,
Tuljapurkar Shripad,
Reznick David N.,
Coulson Tim
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/ele.12563
Subject(s) - competition (biology) , density dependence , trait , ecology , life expectancy , evolutionary dynamics , life history , life history theory , biology , population , evolutionary biology , demography , computer science , sociology , programming language
Abstract The effects of asymmetric interactions on population dynamics has been widely investigated, but there has been little work aimed at understanding how life history parameters like generation time, life expectancy and the variance in lifetime reproductive success are impacted by different types of competition. We develop a new framework for incorporating trait‐mediated density‐dependence into size‐structured models and use Trinidadian guppies to show how different types of competitive interactions impact life history parameters. Our results show the degree of symmetry in competitive interactions can have dramatic effects on the speed of the life history. For some vital rates, shifting the competitive superiority from small to large individuals resulted in a doubling of the generation time. Such large influences of competitive symmetry on the timescale of demographic processes, and hence evolution, highlights the interwoven nature of ecological and evolutionary processes and the importance of density‐dependence in understanding eco‐evolutionary dynamics.