The ecology of sexual conflict: behaviorally plastic responses to temperature variation in the social environment can drastically modulate male harm …

2018

AbstractSexual conflict is a fundamental driver of male/female adaptations, an engine of biodiversity, and a crucial determinant of population viability. For example, sexual conflict frequently leads to behavioural adaptations that allow males to displace their rivals, but in doing so harm those same females they are competing to access. Sexual conflict via male harm hence not only deviates females from their fitness optimum, but can decrease population viability and facilitate extinction. Despite this prominent role, we are far from understanding what factors modulate the intensity of sexual conflict, and particularly the role of ecology in mediating underlying behavioural adaptations. In …