Co-existence of multiple trade-off currencies shapes evolutionary outcomes

Evolutionary studies often assume that energy is the primary resource (i.e. "currency") at the heart of the survival-reproduction trade-off, despite recent evidence to the contrary. The evolutionary consequences of having a single trade-off currency versus multiple competing currencies are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-12, Vol.12 (12), p.e0189124-e0189124
Main Authors: Cohen, Alan A, Isaksson, Caroline, Salguero-Gómez, Roberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Biologi
Biological Sciences
Biology and Life Sciences
Evolutionary Biology
Evolutionsbiologi
Foreign exchange rates
History
Medicine and Health Sciences
Money
Natural Sciences
Naturvetenskap
Research and Analysis Methods
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Summary:Evolutionary studies often assume that energy is the primary resource (i.e. "currency") at the heart of the survival-reproduction trade-off, despite recent evidence to the contrary. The evolutionary consequences of having a single trade-off currency versus multiple competing currencies are unknown. Using simulations, we modeled the evolution of either a single physiological currency between reproduction and survival, or of multiple such currencies. For a wide array of model specifications varying functional forms and strengths of the trade-offs, we show that the presence of multiple currencies (e.g. nutrients, time) generally results in the evolution of higher lifetime reproductive success through partial circumvention of such trade-offs. Evolution of the underlying physiology is also more highly contingent with multiple currencies. These results challenge the paradigm of a single survival-reproduction trade-off as central to life history evolution, suggesting greater roles for physiological constraints and contingency, and implying potential selection for evolution of multiple trade-off currencies.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0189124