Sexual Selection and Sexual Conflict

By U. Candolin. Encyclopedia of Ecology, 2019

292 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Sexual selection is the cause of extravagant traits that confer no advantage in the struggle for survival, but improve mating and fertilization success. These traits are often highly exaggerated such as conspicuous ornaments and elaborate courtship displays. In this article I discuss the mechanisms of sexual selection—how and why sexually selected traits evolve—as well as the consequences that sexual selection can have at both the individual and the population level. Sexual conflict is an inevitable part of sexual selection, as the evolutionary interest of genetically different individuals always differ. This can result in the evolution of traits that severely harm females and thereby reduce population growth rate. Sexual selection can also influence speciation and hybridization, as well as the ability of species to adapt to rapid human-induced environmental changes. Sexual selection is currently a highly active research field, but many questions remain, such as the ultimate effect of sexual selection on population viability.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics

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