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Tuesday "Noon" Seminar: Feb. 27, 2007Emily Jones on "Evolutionary dynamics of a mutualism: the consequences of exploitation"
12:30-1:45 p.m. in Biosciences West (map of building location), Room 208 |
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Talk Abstract Exploiters can impose high costs on mutualisms by taking, but not reciprocating, rewards meant for mutualists. Nevertheless, exploiters are commonly seen in nature coexisting with mutualists. In their 2003 model, Morris et al. found the conditions under which exploiters and mutualists in the yucca/yucca moth mutualism can coexist on an ecological timescale. By expanding this model in an adaptive dynamics framework, I explore the evolutionary consequences of exploitation. Depending on levels of intraspecific competition in both exploiter and mutualist, successful invasion by exploiters can be followed by coexistence, purging of the exploiter, or even evolutionary suicide of the mutualism. In this talk I will discuss these different outcomes, as well as the ecological consequences of coevolution and the potential origins of exploiters predicted by the model. |
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