Using sex ratios: why bother?

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511542053.021

Chapter 20 - Using sex ratios: why bother?

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2009

Stuart A. West and

Edward Allen Herre

Edited by

Ian C. W. Hardy

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Stuart A. West: Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Edward Allen Herre: Affiliation:
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, USA, and, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Republic of Panama
Ian C. W. Hardy: Affiliation:
University of Nottingham

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Summary

Many see research into sex allocation as the jewel in the crown of evolutionary ecology. There is a very rich experimental literature providing qualitative, and in some cases quantitative, support for the predictions of numerous theoretical models. Consequently, it might be argued that future work will primarily be concerned with dotting i's and crossing t's. Given that there are still so many relatively untamed areas in evolutionary biology, we should therefore ask – why bother with more sex-allocation studies? Our aim in this chapter is to address this question (why?), complementing the more methodological (how?) parts of this book. We argue that sex allocation is an excellent model trait for examining general questions in evolutionary biology.

The usefulness of sex allocation

The strength of sex-allocation research arises for both theoretical and empirical reasons. Sex allocation has a direct and potentially large influence on fitness, and the relevant trade-offs are easy to quantify. Consequently, optimality models are able to make clear theoretical predictions in many specified cases. Empirically, sex allocation can be a relatively easy trait to measure. This is especially true in cases where males and females are equally costly to produce, and so we can concern ourselves simply with the sex ratio (defined as proportion males, i.e. males/(males+females)). In this case, all we must do is count the number of male and female offspring that are produced.

Type: Chapter
Information: Sex Ratios
Concepts and Research Methods
, pp. 399 - 413

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542053.021 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

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Chapter 20 - Using sex ratios: why bother?

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