Evolution and maintenance of cooperation in metapopulation: theoretical and experimental approaches

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26840147
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Kadowaki Kohmei 京都大学, 人間・環境学研究科(研究院), 研究員 (30643548)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KONDOH Michio 龍谷大学, 理工学部, 教授 (30388160)
• Research Collaborator: Mouquet Nicolas フランス・モンペリエ大学ISEM(進化学研究所), 博士 ; Jousset Alexandre オランダ・ユトレヒト大学, 生物学部, 博士
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 協力関係 / メタ個体群 / 空間構造 / 進化 / 移動分散

Outline of Final Research Achievements

What allows cooperators to persist in a population has been a central question in evolutionary ecology, since a game theoretical argument predicts that a population of cooperator can be easily invaded by defectors and may be exploited and eventually become extinct. With collaborators I theoretically and experimentally tested a model that attributes the maintenance of cooperator to spatial structure; an intermediate rate of dispersal could allow cooperators to exploit open patches as temporal refuges where defector populations already collapsed, allowing for coexistence of cooperators and defectors in the whole system.

Free Research Field

群集生態学