Evolutionary suicide is an evolutionary phenomenon in which the process of
adaptation
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
causes the population to become
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
. For example, individuals might be selected to switch from eating mature plants to seedlings, and thereby deplete their food plant's population. Selection on individuals can theoretically produce adaptations that threaten the survival of the population.
Much of the research on evolutionary suicide has used the
mathematical model
A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modeling. Mathematical models are used in the natural sciences (such as physics, ...
ing technique
adaptive dynamics
Evolutionary invasion analysis, also known as adaptive dynamics, is a set of mathematical modeling techniques that use differential equations to study the long-term evolution of Phenotypic trait, traits in Asexual reproduction, asexually reprodu ...
, in which genetic changes are studied together with
population dynamics. This allows the model to predict how
population density
Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...
will change as a given
trait invades the population.
Evolutionary suicide has also been referred to as "Darwinian extinction", "runaway selection to self-extinction", and "evolutionary collapse". The idea is similar in concept to the
tragedy of the commons
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy i ...
and the
Tendency of the rate of profit to fall
The tendency of the rate of profit to fall (TRPF) is a theory in the crisis theory of political economy, according to which the rate of profit—the ratio of the profit to the amount of invested capital—decreases over time. This hypothesis ...
, namely that they are all examples of an accumulation of individual changes leading to a collective disaster such that it negates those individual changes.
Many adaptations have apparently negative effects on population dynamics, for example infanticide by male lions, or the production of toxins by bacteria. However, empirically establishing that an extinction event was unambiguously caused by the process of adaptation is not a trivial task.
See also
*
Fisherian runaway
Fisherian runaway or runaway selection is a sexual selection mechanism proposed by the mathematical biologist Ronald Fisher in the early 20th century, to account for the evolution of ostentatious male ornamentation by persistent, directional fem ...
*
Sexual selection § Geometric progression
* ''
The Limits to Growth
''The Limits to Growth'' (''LTG'') is a 1972 report that discussed the possibility of exponential economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer model to simula ...
''
References and external links
{{reflist
* Gyllenberg, M. & K. Parvinen. 2001. Necessary and sufficient conditions for evolutionary suicide. ''
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology The Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB) is an international association co-founded in 1972 in the United States by George Karreman, Herbert Daniel Landahl and (initially chaired) by Anthony Bartholomay for the furtherance of joint scientific a ...
'' 63, 981–993, doi:10.1006/bulm.2001.0253
* Gyllenberg, M., K. Parvinen & U. Dieckmann. 2002
Evolutionary suicide and evolution of dispersal in structured metapopulations ''J. Math. Biol.'' 45, 79–105 (IIASA Interim Report IR-00-056)
* Nagy, J.D., E.M. Victor and J.H. Cropper. 2007
Why don't all whales have cancer? A novel hypothesis resolving Peto's paradox ''Int. Comp. Biol.'' 47, 317–328
* Parvinen, K. 2005. Evolutionary suicide. ''Acta Biotheoretica'' 53, 241–264
* Rankin, D.J. & A. Lopez-Sepulcre. 2005
Can adaptation lead to extinction?''Oikos'' 111, 616–619
* Rankin, D.J., K. Bargum & H. Kokko. 2007
The tragedy of the commons in evolutionary biology ''Trends in Ecology and Evolution'' 22, 643–651
Evolutionary biology
Extinction