Resolving the tragedy of the commons: the feedback between intraspecific conflict and population density

Rankin, Daniel (2007). Resolving the tragedy of the commons: the feedback between intraspecific conflict and population density. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 20(1), pp. 173-180. Basel: Wiley 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2006.01211.x

Full text not available from this repository.

Competition and conflict among individuals can favour exploitative strategies that undermine the common good. Theory suggests that this can lead to a tragedy of the commons and ultimately population extinction, a phenomenon known as evolutionary suicide. Here, I present a model of the evolutionary tragedy of the commons that explicitly considers the population dynamics where individuals invest in individually costly competitive traits. In the simplest form, this supports the notion that selection for high levels of conflict can cause evolutionary suicide. However, as competition comes with survival and fecundity costs, a feedback between the investment in competition and population density can act to reduce the level of conflict and prevent the population from going extinct. This suggests that the interaction between population ecology and the evolution of competition and conflict among individuals may be an important mechanism in resolving the level of competition and conflict among individuals.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE)
UniBE Contributor:	Rankin, Daniel
ISSN:	1010-061X
Publisher:	Wiley
Language:	English
Submitter:	Factscience Import
Date Deposited:	04 Oct 2013 14:58
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:18
Publisher DOI:	10.1111/j.1420-9101.2006.01211.x
PubMed ID:	17210010
Web of Science ID:	000242904600025
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/25165 (FactScience: 56059)