One big, and many small reasons that direct selection on offspring number is still open for discussion

In a recent paper, I proposed that natural selection should act to increase offspring number when diversification bet hedging is favoured. The simple underlying reasoning is that a target diversification strategy is more reliably generated with increasing sample size. The intention of opening a disc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evolutionary biology 2008-03, Vol.21 (2), p.642-645
Main Author: SIMONS, A.M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Animal reproduction
bet hedging
Clutch Size
Criticism
diversification strategy
Environment
Evolutionary biology
life-history evolution
Models, Genetic
Offspring
offspring size-number trade-off
Population Density
Population number
Reproduction - genetics
risk spreading
Selection, Genetic
stochastic environment
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Summary:In a recent paper, I proposed that natural selection should act to increase offspring number when diversification bet hedging is favoured. The simple underlying reasoning is that a target diversification strategy is more reliably generated with increasing sample size. The intention of opening a discussion has been realized; recent criticisms of the idea argue that selection does not act to increase offspring number when population size is large or infinite. Here I agree that criticisms have merit; indeed they are largely confined to the caveats discussed in my original paper. The critique, however, implies a verdict of outright rejection of the idea of selection on offspring number, which would be erroneous. Contrary to the assertions of the criticism, then, the importance of selection acting directly on offspring number remains an open question.
ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01475.x