Chaotic Dynamics Can Select for Long‐Term Dormancy

Extended dormancy in a population is evolutionarily costly unless some variance in season‐to‐season fitness (usually driven by variance in environmental quality) makes bet hedging useful. Consequently, dormancy in a population is usually accepted as evidence of environmental variance. Using a Ricker...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American naturalist 2006-07, Vol.168 (1), p.127-131
Main Authors: Lalonde, R. G., Roitberg, B. D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological Evolution
Chaos theory
Demography
Dormancy
Ecological competition
Environment
Evolution
Genotypes
Models, Biological
Mortality
Natural selection
Nonlinear Dynamics
Paradoxes
Population Dynamics
Seasons
Selection, Genetic
Time Factors
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Summary:Extended dormancy in a population is evolutionarily costly unless some variance in season‐to‐season fitness (usually driven by variance in environmental quality) makes bet hedging useful. Consequently, dormancy in a population is usually accepted as evidence of environmental variance. Using a Ricker‐type model with heritable variation in dormancy, we show that this need not be so. Intrinsic population dynamics can generate chaotic fluctuations in the absence of environmental variance. Chaotic dynamics increase the frequency of a range of dormant strategists under natural selection, even when mortality during dormancy is relatively high. The buffering effect of dormant individuals then eliminates chaotic dynamics or generates periodic orbits of relatively low amplitude. These stabilized populations harbor a high frequency of dormant individuals that express a range of propensities to enter dormancy.
ISSN:0003-0147
1537-5323
DOI:10.1086/505155