POWRE: Ecological and Evolutionary Dynamics of Cheating in Mutualisms

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Bronstein9973521Cooperation is often thought to reflect a delicate balance between partners whose interests fundamentally conflict. It has therefore been hard to understand how these interactions, both among humans and among other organisms, apparently persist so successfully. This POWRE award will be used to examine when "cheating" - that is, defection from cooperation - can pose a risk to the persistence of cooperative interactions between different species (mutualisms). The research will focus on interactions between plants, the animals that pollinate them (mutualists), and the animals that collect nectar but that not only do not pollinate, but actually damage the flowers (cheaters) employing the development of new theoretical models. This work should make a significant contribution towards our understanding of the remarkable ubiquity and apparent stability of cooperation in nature.