Alternative reproductive tactics and evolutionary rescue

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Population genetics
• Ecology

Background:

• Environmental change poses a threat to global biodiversity.
• Sexual selection can accelerate population adaptation.
• Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) in males complicate mating dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of ARTs on population adaptation and evolutionary rescue under environmental change.
• To determine how different types of ARTs (simultaneous vs. fixed) affect adaptive capacity.

Main Methods:

• Individual-based modeling approach.
• Simulations exploring scenarios with simultaneous and fixed ARTs.
• Analysis of population adaptation rates and likelihood of evolutionary rescue.

Main Results:

• Simultaneous ARTs reduce adaptive capacity and the probability of evolutionary rescue by increasing gene flow from low-quality males.
• Fixed ARTs enhance adaptive capacity and evolutionary rescue by increasing mating success for high-quality males.
• The type of ART critically influences population resilience to environmental change.

Conclusions:

• ARTs can have contrasting effects on a population's ability to adapt to environmental change.
• Fixed ARTs can promote evolutionary rescue, while simultaneous ARTs can impede it.
• Understanding ARTs is crucial for predicting species' responses to global environmental shifts.