Conditional reproductive strategies under variable environmental conditions

Abstract

Within the framework of adaptive dynamics we consider the evolution by natural selection of reproductive strategies in which individuals may adjust their reproductive behaviour in response to changing environmental conditions. As a specific example we considered a discrete-time model in which possible fluctuations in the environmental conditions are caused by predator-prey interaction. Our main findings include: (1) Coexistence between two fixed strategies (i.e., strategies that do not adjust to changing environmental conditions) is impossible; there exists a best fixed strategy, which invades and ousts all other fixed strategies. (2) A necessary condition for conditional (adjustable) strategies to evolve is that there are fluctuations in the environmental conditions. Predator-prey interactions may cause such fluctuations and under natural assumptions there exists an optimal conditional strategy which is uninvadable and invades and ousts all other strategies.