Abstract
For adaptive evolution to occur a population has to be persistent. Therefore at least some life history characteristics of the individuals have to be under environmental control, and some characteristics of the environment have to respond to an output from the population to close the "environmental feedback loop" that keeps the population from exploding or dwindling away. An example is the frequently observed dependence of the time till maturation on food availability. Yet, present day life history theory assumes that this feedback loop is either absent or else of some unreasonably simple and often unrealistic kind. Previous work in our group (Mylius & Diekmann 1995, Metz, Mylius & Diekmann, 1996; Heino, Metz & Kaitala, 1997; Mylius & Metz, 1999) has shown that the outcome of life history evolution may strongly depend on the precise nature of this feedbackloop. Our goal is to initiate a more systematic study of this dependence. To this end we will study two special relatively simple classes of population dynamical models that have earned their keep in earlier life history work, but now extended to incorporate various possible feedbackloops. In addition we will, in close collaboration with two different experimental groups, consider the life history evolution of two model organisms, guppies and flour beetles, to test how well the new framework performs in concrete applications.
Netherlands