H. Kokko - Life history predictions: sometimes intuitive, sometimes not

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Abstract

Why should anyone fund theoretical evolutionary ecologists (like me)?

I will argue that the reason is that intuition can lead us astray when making predictions about evolutionary processes. I will illustrate this with three different (theoretical) case studies:

1. The so-called life-dinner principle, where prey are supposedly ahead in any predator- prey arms race, because a prey individual will run for its life, while a predator only runs for its dinner.
2. The so-called Williams prediction, where selection works more strongly against senescence in species that live in relatively safe environments.
3. The coevolution of sex ratios and the frequency of parthenogenesis.

Some of these confirm one’s intuition more readily than others, though this of course depends on what one found intuitive in the first place.

To make you curious: can you think of a trait that takes diagonally opposite values in birds versus stick insects?

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Après un doctorat en Finlande, Hanna Kokko a poursuivi des recherches postdoctorales au Royaume-Uni, à Cambridge et Glasgow, avant de retourner en Finlande comme professeure. Elle a ensuite exercé en Australie en tant que Laureate Fellow, avant de rejoindre l’Université de Zurich en 2014, où elle a occupé une chaire en écologie évolutive, puis en 2023 elle a rejoint l’Université de Mayence.

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