Mating Systems and Strategies

By S. Shuster, Michael J. Wade. 2003

1,248 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This book presents the first unified conceptual and statistical framework for understanding the evolution of reproductive strategies. Using the concept of the opportunity for sexual selection, the authors illustrate how and why sexual selection, though restricted to one sex and opposed in the other, is one of the strongest and fastest of all evolutionary forces. They offer a statistical framework for studying mating system evolution and apply it to patterns of alternative mating strategies. In doing so, they provide a method for quantifying how the strength of sexual selection is affected by the ecological and life history processes that influence females' spatial and temporal clustering and reproductive schedules. Directly challenging verbal evolutionary models that attempt to explain reproductive behavior without quantitative reference to evolutionary genetics, this book establishes a more solid theoretical foundation for the field. Among the weaknesses the authors find in the existing data is the apparent ubiquity of condition-dependent mating tactics. They identify factors likely to contribute to the evolution of alternative mating strategies--which they argue are more common than generally believed--and illustrate how to measure the strength of selection acting on them. Lastly, they offer predictions on the covariation of mating systems and strategies, consider the underlying developmental biology behind male polyphenism, and propose directions for future research. Informed by genetics, this is a comprehensive and rigorous new approach to explaining mating systems and strategies that will influence a wide swath of evolutionary biology.

Subfields: Genetics

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Citations in the corpus

Mating preference of female zebrafish, Danio rerio, in relation to male dominance (2006, background): “The strength of sexual selection depends on the sex difference in the variance in mating success for each sex; the greater the difference, the more opportunity there is for selection to operate ( Shuster and Wade 2003 ).”
Parental investment, sexual selection and sex ratios (2008, background): “How Past Assumptions Have Shaped Subsequent Research Numerous mathematical models have built on Trivers (1972) to investigate specific, isolated aspects of sex roles.”
Fighting for harems: assessment strategies during male–male contests in the sexually dimorphic Wellington tree weta (2006, neutral): “Hemideina crassidens is a male-dominance polygynandrous (sensu Shuster & Wade 2003) insect in which the positively allometric heads of males (Kelly 2005) possess enlarged mandibles that have been long considered weapons used during fights for possession of harems (groups of one to several adult…”
Life History and Reproductive Strategies of Khao Yai Hylobates lar: Implications for Social Evolution in Apes (2008, neutral): “To understand primate female reproductive strategies comprehensively, long-term demographic data that capture life cycle information are indispensable because life history, ecology, and behavior interact in intimate ways that can effectively constrain sexual strategies (Kappeler et al. 2003; Schuste”
Allometry and sexual selection of male weaponry in Wellington tree weta, Hemideina crassidens (2005, neutral): “The evolution of two different alternative strategies, each with its own morphology and behavior, can evolve and is common (Shuster and Wade, 2003); however, the evolutionof three ormore alternative phenotypes is uncommon (Sinervo and Lively, 1997; Zimmerer and Kallman, 1989; but see Shuster, 1987).”
Different strokes: Can managing behavioral types increase post-release success? (2007, neutral): “Thus, the development of effective alternative behavioral strategies is an outcome of competition (Shuster and Wade, 2003).”
Feather-Degrading Bacteria: A New Frontier in Avian and Host–Parasite Research? (2008, background): “Whitaker et al. (2005) surveyed eight temperate bird species and found FDB on all of them, with a mean FDB prevalence of 39%.”
Chemosensory assessment of rival competitive ability and scent-mark function in a lizard, Podarcis hispanica (2007, background): “Male mating strategies are not necessarily fixed or unconditional but may adjust to varying costs and benefits (e.g. Gross 1996; Shuster & Wade 2003; Plaistow et al. 2004; Shine et al. 2005).”
Lonely hearts or sex in the city? Density-dependent effects in mating systems (2006, background): “Spatial clumping increases the opportunity for sexual selection (Shuster & Wade 2003), but one should not carelessly argue that all situations, where individuals move closer to each other end up resembling high-density populations.”
The mating system of the brown bear Ursus arctos (2012, methodology): “Even with the lack of agreement on terminology and classification, the frameworks are generally accepted and are often used as a starting point in mating system studies (Andersson 1994, Shuster & Wade 2003).”