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Predicting evolutionary responses to interspecific interference in the wild

Grether, G.F.; Drury, J.P.; Okamoto, K.; McEachin, S.; Anderson, C.

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Authors

G.F. Grether

K. Okamoto

S. McEachin

C. Anderson



Abstract

Many interspecifically territorial species interfere with each other reproductively, and in some cases, aggression toward heterospecifics may be an adaptive response to interspecific mate competition. This hypothesis was recently formalized in an agonistic character displacement (ACD) model which predicts that species should evolve to defend territories against heterospecific rivals above a threshold level of reproductive interference. To test this prediction, we parameterized the model with field estimates of reproductive interference for 32 sympatric damselfly populations and ran evolutionary simulations. Asymmetries in reproductive interference made the outcome inherently unpredictable in some cases, but 80% of the model’s stable outcomes matched levels of heterospecific aggression in the field, significantly exceeding chance expectations. In addition to bolstering the evidence for ACD, this paper introduces a new, predictive approach to testing character displacement theory that, if applied to other systems, could help resolve longstanding questions about the importance of character displacement processes in nature.

Citation

Grether, G., Drury, J., Okamoto, K., McEachin, S., & Anderson, C. (2020). Predicting evolutionary responses to interspecific interference in the wild. Ecology Letters, 23(2), 221-230. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13395

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 7, 2019
Online Publication Date Nov 15, 2019
Publication Date Feb 28, 2020
Deposit Date Sep 9, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Ecology Letters
Print ISSN 1461-023X
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 23
Issue 2
Pages 221-230
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13395

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Grether, G.F., Drury, J.P., Okamoto, K., McEachin, S. & Anderson, C. (2020). Predicting evolutionary responses to interspecific interference in the wild. Ecology Letters 23(2): 221-230, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13395. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.




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