Sex allocation promotes the stable co-occurrence of competitive species.
Sex allocation promotes the stable co-occurrence of competitive species.
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DOI：
10.1038/srep43966
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发表时间：
2017-03-06
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Kobayashi K
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kobayashi K
长期以来，生物多样性一直是奇迹和科学好奇心的源泉。从理论上讲，竞争物种的共存需要生态位分化，这种差异是众所周知的；然而，中性理论假定生物群落中所有个体不分物种都是相等的，它成功地重建了观察到的生物多样性模式。在这项研究中，性别分配的进化被证明是解决为什么中性理论有效的关键，尽管观察到物种差异。性别分配理论预测，在密度下降的物种中，雌性偏向的分配会进化，这种分配会促进种群增长，从而导致密度的增加。相反，当密度增加时，一种较少偏向的分配演变，这降低了人口增长率，导致密度下降。因此，性别分配为种群增长中的物种差异提供了缓冲。一个包含这一机制的模型表明，即使在同质环境中，数百个物种也可以在10,000代中共存，并再现了所观察到的生物多样性模式。这项研究揭示了物种内部进化过程对生物多样性可持续性的重要性。整合整个生物过程，从基因到群落，将开启生态学的新时代。
Biodiversity has long been a source of wonder and scientific curiosity. Theoretically, the co-occurrence of competitive species requires niche differentiation, and such differences are well known; however, the neutral theory, which assumes the equivalence of all individuals regardless of the species in a biological community, has successfully recreated observed patterns of biodiversity. In this research, the evolution of sex allocation is demonstrated to be the key to resolving why the neutral theory works well, despite the observed species differences. The sex allocation theory predicts that female-biased allocation evolves in species in declining density and that this allocation improves population growth, which should lead to an increase in density. In contrast, when the density increases, a less biased allocation evolves, which reduces the population growth rate and leads to decreased density. Thus, sex allocation provides a buffer against species differences in population growth. A model incorporating this mechanism demonstrates that hundreds of species can co-occur over 10,000 generations, even in homogeneous environments, and reproduces the observed patterns of biodiversity. This study reveals the importance of evolutionary processes within species for the sustainability of biodiversity. Integrating the entire biological process, from genes to community, will open a new era of ecology.