Relatedness in spatially structured populations with empty sites: An approach based on spatial moment equations.
Taking into account the interplay between spatial ecological dynamics and selection is a major challenge in evolutionary ecology. Although inclusive fitness theory has proven to be a very useful tool to unravel the interactions between spatial genetic structuring and selection, applications of the theory usually rely on simplifying demographic assumptions. In this paper, I attempt to bridge the gap between spatial demographic models and kin selection models by providing a method to compute approximations for relatedness coefficients in a spatial model with empty sites. Using spatial moment equations, I provide an approximation of nearest-neighbour relatedness on random regular networks, and show that this approximation performs much better than the ordinary pair approximation. I discuss the connection between the relatedness coefficients I define and those used in population genetics, and sketch some potential extensions of the theory.
Lion
Sébastien
S
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. slion@biologie.ens.fr
D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010375:Pedigree; D011156:Population Density; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012641:Selection, Genetic