Negative frequency dependent selection unites ecology and evolution.

Area of Science:

• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Population Genetics
• Biodiversity Science

Background:

• Maintaining biological diversity from genes to communities is a fundamental question in biology.
• Negative frequency dependent selection (NFDS) is a potentially ubiquitous yet challenging mechanism for diversity maintenance.
• NFDS occurs when an entity's fitness decreases with increasing relative abundance, allowing rare entities to persist.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the role of NFDS in the maintenance of diversity.
• To connect NFDS with ecological coexistence.
• To highlight the intersection of ecology and evolution through NFDS.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and synthesis.
• Identification of NFDS mechanisms (mutualism, predation, parasitism).
• Distinguishing NFDS from other coexistence mechanisms (storage effects, fluctuating selection).

Main Results:

• NFDS plays a central role in maintaining diversity by preventing competitive exclusion.
• NFDS mechanisms are diverse and include ecological interactions.
• NFDS provides a crucial link between ecological frequency dependence and evolutionary selection.

Conclusions:

• NFDS is a significant factor in the maintenance of diversity across biological scales.
• Bridging ecology and evolution through NFDS offers mechanistic insights into diversity.
• Further research linking ecological frequency dependence to evolutionary selection is warranted.