Good for the group? Explaining apparent group-level adaptation

Isabel M Smallegange; Martijn Egas

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2015.04.005

Good for the group? Explaining apparent group-level adaptation

Trends Ecol Evol. 2015 Jul;30(7):379-81. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.04.005. Epub 2015 Apr 23.

Authors

Isabel M Smallegange¹, Martijn Egas²

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94248, 1090GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: i.smallegange@uva.nl.
² Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94248, 1090GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: egas@uva.nl.

PMID: 25913450
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2015.04.005

Abstract

The idea that group selection can explain adaptive trait evolution is still controversial. Recent empirical work proposes evidence for group-level adaptation in a social spider, but the findings can also be explained from an individual-level perspective. The challenge remains to identify situations where one can separate group and individual selection.

Keywords: adaptation; conditional strategy; environmental threshold model; group selection; multilevel selection; social spider.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adaptation, Physiological
Aggression / physiology
Animals
Biological Evolution*
Phenotype
Selection, Genetic
Social Behavior
Spiders / genetics
Spiders / physiology*