The Intensity of Sexual Selection with Density and Age and its importance in the evolution of animal populations

    Project: Research

    Project Details

    Description

    Population density affects sexual selection because it determines the rate at which competitors and potential mates encounter each other. In species where animals continue to grow throughout their lives large individuals are older and, due to the cumulative risk of mortality, they are also rare. If a species also has size-assortative mating these large males only mate with large females. In effect this means that they are living at low densities in terms of the number of genuine competitors and possible mates. We will study Australian fiddler crabs to explore how age, size and density affect sexual selection.
    StatusFinished
    Effective start/end date1/01/0731/12/10

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