Refereed journal article or data article (A1)

Self-extinction through optimizing selection




List of AuthorsKalle Parvinen, Ulf Dieckmann

PublisherACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Publication year2013

JournalJournal of Theoretical Biology

Journal name in sourceJOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY

Journal acronymJ THEOR BIOL

Volume number333

Start page1

End page9

Number of pages9

ISSN0022-5193

DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2013.03.025


Abstract
Evolutionary suicide is a process in which selection drives a viable population to extinction. So far, such selection-driven self-extinction has been demonstrated in models with frequency-dependent selection. This is not surprising, since frequency-dependent selection can disconnect individual-level and population-level interests through environmental feedback. Hence it can lead to situations akin to the tragedy of the commons, with adaptations that serve the selfish interests of individuals ultimately ruining a population. For frequency-dependent selection to play such a role, it must not be optimizing. Together, all published studies of evolutionary suicide have created the impression that evolutionary suicide is not possible with optimizing selection. Here we disprove this misconception by presenting and analyzing an example in which optimizing selection causes self-extinction. We then take this line of argument one step further by showing, in a further example, that selection-driven self-extinction can occur even under frequency-independent selection.


Last updated on 2021-24-06 at 11:00