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Types of Selection

Types of Selection

Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...

Frequency-dependent Selection

Frequency-dependent Selection

When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.

Trait Theory by Gordon Allport

Trait Theory by Gordon Allport

Gordon Allport, often regarded as the father of American personality psychology, developed a theory that emphasized the importance of understanding people in their present lives rather than focusing on their past, as psychoanalysis did. Allport believed that personality should be studied in healthy, well-adjusted individuals rather than those with psychological problems. He was particularly interested in defining traits, which he saw as fundamental mental structures that guide behavior across...

Mate Choice

Mate Choice

Mate choice—the decision about whom to mate with—is a type of natural selection, since animals must reproduce to pass down their genes. Mate choice is also called intersexual selection because the behavior occurs between the sexes.

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.

What is Natural Selection?

What is Natural Selection?

Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 1, 2025

Digital PCR-based Competitive Index for High-throughput Analysis of Fitness in Salmonella

Digital PCR-based Competitive Index for High-throughput Analysis of Fitness in Salmonella

Published on: May 13, 2019

Priority effects can be explained by competitive traits.

Tamara L H van Steijn¹, Paul Kardol², Roland Jansson¹

¹Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.

|January 22, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Priority effects in plant communities are influenced by species traits and arrival order. Trait differences between early and late arriving species significantly impact competition outcomes, especially when species arrive sequentially.

Keywords:

competition competitive effect and response functional similarity plant functional groups plant interaction priority effects traits

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Plant Community Dynamics
Interspecific Competition

Background:

Priority effects, where early-arriving species influence later ones, arise from niche preemption and modification.
The strength of these effects depends on both early and late arriving species' adaptations.
Understanding species interactions is crucial for predicting community assembly and stability.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how pairwise combinations of 15 plant species exhibit priority effects.
To determine the influence of arrival order and species traits on competitive interactions.
To quantify the roles of competitive effect and response in priority effects.

Main Methods:

A 10-week controlled pot experiment compared simultaneous and sequential arrival orders for all species pairs.
Utilized the competitive effect and response framework to assess species interactions.
Measured plant functional traits and employed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to analyze trait gradients.

Main Results:

Species with strong competitive effects when arriving simultaneously had weaker competitive responses.
When arriving sequentially, early-arriving species with strong priority effects showed weaker responses to later arrivals.
Legumes exhibited the weakest responses to priority effects among plant functional groups.
Trait dissimilarity between species was more critical under sequential arrival, particularly when late-arriving species were more acquisitive.

Conclusions:

Species traits, especially their interactions, are key determinants of competition outcomes, particularly under priority effects (sequential arrival).
Trait-based approaches are essential for understanding and predicting plant community assembly.
The interplay between arrival order and species traits shapes community structure and function.