Adaptive dynamics of saturated polymorphisms (Q259246)

This paper deals with ecological systems where the invasion fitness depends on \(n\) independent environmental feedback variables containing \(n\) scalar-valued strategies (the maximum number of coexisting strategies permitted by the competitive exclusion principle). The authors focus their attention on equilibria where the exclusion principle ensures generically the coexistence of no more than \(n\) strategies and they call such \(n\)-morphic populations \textit{saturated polymorphisms}. Starting with a simple example, they demonstrate a number of features exhibited by the evolution of saturated polymorphisms and proceed then with the description of adaptive dynamics of saturated polymorphisms in the general case. It is proved that, in saturated \(n\)-morphisms, evolutionary stable singularities correspond to critical points of each environmental feedback, but, in general, these critical points are not extrema for \(n\geq2\). Connections between the adaptive dynamics of saturated polymorphisms and of \(\left( n-1\right) \)-morphic populations are explored; this analysis can be also extended to the connections to lower levels of polymorphism. For \(n=2\), the authors suggest a method for constructing different pairwise invasibility plots of the monomorphic population without changing the selection gradients of the saturated dimorphism. By changing only the embedding model but not the invasion fitness, one obtains different invasibility plots and areas of coexistence to the same trait evolution plot. The construction method is based on the solution of the inverse problem of finding a model to a given outcome and can be further extended to analyze evolutionary phenomena which are not necessarily related to evolutionary singularities.