Adaptive dynamics

Abstract

Adaptive dynamics (AD) is a mathematical framework for dealing with eco-evolutionary problems, primarily based on the following simplifying assumptions: clonal reproduction, rare mutations, small mutational effects, smoothness of the demographic parameters in the traits, and well-behaved community attractors. However, often the results from AD models turn out to apply also under far less restrictive conditions. The main AD tools are its so-called canonical equation (CE) that captures how the trait value(s) currently present in the population should develop over evolutionary time, and graphical techniques for analyzing evolutionary progress for one-dimensional trait spaces like .pairwise invasibility plots. (PIPs) and .trait evolution plots. (TEPs). The equilibria of the CE, customarily referred to as evolutionarily singular strategies, or ess-es, comprise in addition to the evolutionary equilibria, or ESSes, also points in trait space where the population comes under a selective pressure to diversify. Such points mathematically capture the ecological conditions conducive to adaptive (Darwinian) speciation