Sex Allocation

by West, Stuart

• ISBN13: 9781400832019
• ISBN10: 1400832012
• Copyright: 2009-10-18
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Recent decades have witnessed an explosion of theoretical and empirical studies of sex allocation, transforming how we understand the allocation of resources to male and female reproduction in vertebrates, invertebrates, protozoa, and plants. In this landmark book, Stuart West synthesizes the vast literature on sex allocation, providing the conceptual framework the field has been lacking and demonstrating how sex-allocation studies can shed light on broader questions in evolutionary and behavioral biology.West clarifies fundamental misconceptions in the application of theory to empirical data. He examines the field's successes and failures, and describes the research areas where much important work is yet to be done. West reveals how a shared underlying theoretical framework unites findings of sex-ratio variation across a huge range of life forms, from malarial parasites and hermaphroditic worms to sex-changing fish and mammals. He shows how research on sex allocation has been central to many critical questions and controversies in evolutionary and behavioral biology, and he argues that sex-allocation research serves as a key testing ground for different theoretical approaches and can help resolve debates about social evolution, parent-offspring conflict, genomic conflict, and levels of selection.Certain to become the defining book on the subject for the next generation of researchers,Sex Allocationexplains why the study of sex allocation provides an ideal model system for advancing our understanding of the constraints on adaptation among all living things in the natural world.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Sex Allocation	p. 1
What Is Sex Allocation?	p. 1
A Potted History	p. 2
Why Is This Book Needed?	p. 8
What Is in This Book	p. 8
What Is Not in This Book	p. 10
How To Read This Book	p. 11
Language and Sex Ratios	p. 12
The Düsing-Fisher Theory of Equal Investment	p. 14
Introduction	p. 14
Fisher's Theory of Equal Investment	p. 15
Darwin to Today	p. 16
Differential Mortality	p. 19
Testing Fisher's Theory	p. 20
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 31
Interactions between Relatives I: Cooperation and Competition	p. 33
Introduction	p. 33
Basic Theory	p. 34
Local Resource Enhancement	p. 40
Local Resource Competition	p. 53
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 69
Interactions between Relatives II: Local Mate Competition	p. 73
Introduction	p. 73
Classic Local Mate Competition Theory	p. 74
Empirical Tests of Local Mate Competition Theory across Populations or Species	p. 83
Facultative Adjustment of Offspring Sex Ratios by Individuals	p. 93
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 107
Interactions between Relatives III: Extended Local Mate Competition Theory	p. 109
Introduction	p. 109
Partial LMC	p. 110
Variable Clutch Size	p. 116
Sibmating and Split Sex Ratios in Haplodiploids	p. 131
Inbreeding Depression	p. 134
Limited Dispersal and Relatedness between Foundress Females	p. 136
Haystacks	p. 140
Asymmetrical Larval Competition	p. 143
Fertility Insurance	p. 143
Variance and Precision	p. 151
Other Population Structures	p. 154
Stochasticity	p. 155
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 156
Conditional Sex Allocation I: Basic Scenarios	p. 162
Introduction	p. 162
Theory	p. 165
Solitary Parasitoid Wasps and Host Size	p. 167
Maternal Quality in Ungulates	p. 174
Maternal Quality and Related Factors in Nonungulates	p. 182
Mate Attractiveness in Birds and Lizards	p. 187
Environmental Sex Determination	p. 191
Sex Change	p. 198
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 205
Conditional Sex Allocation II: Population Consequences and Further Complications	p. 210
Introduction	p. 210
Population-Level Patterns	p. 211
Sex Change Complications	p. 225
ESD Complications, Especially in Reptiles	p. 243
Multiple Selective Forces: LMC and Host Size in Parasitoid Wasps	p. 251
Simultaneous Hermaphrodites	p. 254
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 255
Sex Allocation When Generations Overlap	p. 257
Introduction	p. 257
Exceptional Mortality	p. 258
Exceptional Recruitment	p. 263
Cyclical Models	p. 265
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 273
Conflict I: Between Individuals	p. 276
Introduction	p. 276
Conflict under Fisherian Selection	p. 277
Conflict under LMC, LRC, and LRE	p. 278
Sibling Conflict in Haplodiploids and Single-Sex Broods	p. 281
Polyembryonic Parasitoids	p. 282
Sex Allocation Conflicts in the Eusocial Hymenoptera	p. 287
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 311
Conflict II: Sex Allocation Distorters	p. 316
Introduction	p. 316
Classification of Sex Ratio Distorters	p. 317
Case Studies	p. 329
Consequences of Sex Ratio Distorters	p. 344
Conclusions and Future Directions	p. 351
General Issues	p. 353
Introduction	p. 353
The Success of Sex Allocation	p. 354
The Use of Sex Allocation	p. 355
Outstanding Problems	p. 375
References	p. 379
Index	p. 463
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