The effect of operational sex ratio on the opportunity for sexual selection: a meta-analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Rios Moura ◽  
Paulo Enrique Cardoso Peixoto
Author(s):  
Michael D. Jennions ◽  
Christopher J. Lortie ◽  
Julia Koricheva

This chapter describes nine case studies that illustrate how meta-analysis has contributed to theoretical developments in basic research in ecology and evolution. The main research topics cover are maintenance of biodiversity (Case 1); sexual selection (mate choice/fighting behavior) (cases 2, 8, 9); sex ratio theory (Case 3); allometric scaling (Case 4); the invasiveness of exotic plants (Case 5); seed size and plant abundance (Case 6); and the role of competition and predation in structuring communities (Case 7). It is hoped that these case studies will resonate with the reader and provide “templates” for ways to conduct comparable tests on analogous controversies in their own fields of research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 152 ◽  
pp. 63-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarissa M. House ◽  
James Rapkin ◽  
John Hunt ◽  
David J. Hosken

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Geary

Sexual selection traditionally involves male-male competition and female choice, but in some species, including humans, sexual selection can also involve female-female competition and male choice. The degree to which one aspect of sexual selection or another is manifest in human populations will be influenced by a host of social and ecological variables, including the operational sex ratio. These variables are discussed in connection with the relative contribution of sexual selection and the division of labor to the evolution of human sex differences.


1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Frost

Polygyny does not necessarily entail sexual selection of men. All factors that affect the operational sex ratio must be considered. Data from contemporary hunter-gatherers indicate higher mortality rates in men than in women, and lost female reproductive time. If sexual selection did occur in ancestral hunter-gatherers, it was probably men selecting women and not women selecting men.


Evolution ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (7) ◽  
pp. 1937-1949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Wacker ◽  
Kenyon Mobley ◽  
Elisabet Forsgren ◽  
Lise Cats Myhre ◽  
Karen de Jong ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1552) ◽  
pp. 2541-2548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic A. Edward ◽  
Claudia Fricke ◽  
Tracey Chapman

Artificial selection and experimental evolution document natural selection under controlled conditions. Collectively, these techniques are continuing to provide fresh and important insights into the genetic basis of evolutionary change, and are now being employed to investigate mating behaviour. Here, we focus on how selection techniques can reveal the genetic basis of post-mating adaptations to sexual selection and sexual conflict. Alteration of the operational sex ratio of adult Drosophila over just a few tens of generations can lead to altered ejaculate allocation patterns and the evolution of resistance in females to the costly effects of elevated mating rates. We provide new data to show how male responses to the presence of rivals can evolve. For several traits, the way in which males responded to rivals was opposite in lines selected for male-biased, as opposed to female-biased, adult sex ratio. This shows that the manipulation of the relative intensity of intra- and inter-sexual selection can lead to replicable and repeatable effects on mating systems, and reveals the potential for significant contemporary evolutionary change. Such studies, with important safeguards, have potential utility for understanding sexual selection and sexual conflict across many taxa. We discuss how artificial selection studies combined with genomics will continue to deepen our knowledge of the evolutionary principles first laid down by Darwin 150 years ago.


2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 432-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick S. Fitze ◽  
Jean-François Le Galliard

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