ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2006
Lonely hearts or sex in the city? Density-dependent effects in mating systems.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 145 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
145 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 719 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of urbanisation on social behaviour: a comprehensive review.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Pooled it
- Meta-analytic evidence that sexual selection improves population fitness.Nature communications · 2019Pooled it
- Optimizing adult nutrition and mating duration to improve mass rearing of Chrysoperla zastrowi sillemi.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Sexual Selection Associated With an Aggressive Male Phenotype Reduces Population Size and Hinders Population Recovery After Heat Stress.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Selection Against Hybrids Maintains Genetic Divergence Between Populations of a Coastal Cleaner Fish Translocated Across a Genetic Break.Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- The marginal male hypothesis explains only small amounts of spatial variation in density in pinnipeds.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Telemetry reveals potential mating aggregation behavior of tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) in Hawai'i.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Social Interaction With Females Modulates Context-Dependent Male Guppy Mating Tactics for Female Receptivity.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Habitat Differences in Resource Density and Distribution Affect Ecology and Life History of a Landscape-Modifying Fish.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Ecology and sexual conflict drive the macroevolutionary dynamics of female-limited color polymorphisms in damselflies.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Variation in the Adult Sex Ratio and Morphological Traits ofEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Influence of genetic similarity and social setting on extra-pair parentage in prairie voles.Journal of mammalogy · 2025Article
- Agent-based modelling reveals feedback loops and non-linearity between mating system evolution and disease dynamics.PloS one · 2025Article
- Patterns and temporal trends in canine breakage and scarring in Western Hudson Bay polar bears (Ursus maritimus).PloS one · 2025Article
- Socio-ecological context modulates the significance of territorial contest competition inProceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Causes and consequences of divorce in a long-lived socially monogamous bird.Ecology letters · 2024Article
- Spatial structure could explain the maintenance of alternative reproductive tactics in tree cricket males.Biology open · 2024Article
- The evolution of sex roles: The importance of ecology and social environment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Experimental manipulation of population density in a wild bird alters social structure but not patch discovery rate.Animal behaviour · 2024Article
- Male harm suppresses female fitness, affecting the dynamics of adaptation and evolutionary rescue.Evolution letters · 2024Article
85 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Two very basic ideas in sexual selection are heavily influenced by numbers of potential mates: the evolution of anisogamy, leading to sex role differentiation, and the frequency dependence of reproductive success that tends to equalize primary sex ratios. However, being explicit about the numbers of potential mates is not typical to most evolutionary theory of sexual selection. Here, we argue that this may prevent us from finding the appropriate ecological equilibria that determine the evolutionary endpoints of selection. We review both theoretical and empirical advances on how population density may influence aspects of mating systems such as intrasexual competition, female choice or resistance, and parental care. Density can have strong effects on selective pressures, whether or not there is phenotypic plasticity in individual strategies with respect to density. Mating skew may either increase or decrease with density, which may be aided or counteracted by changes in female behaviour. Switchpoints between alternative mating strategies can be density dependent, and mate encounter rates may influence mate choice (including mutual mate choice), multiple mating, female resistance to male mating attempts, mate searching, mate guarding, parental care, and the probability of divorce. Considering density-dependent selection may be essential for understanding how populations can persist at all despite sexual conflict, but simple models seem to fail to predict the diversity of observed responses in nature. This highlights the importance of considering the interaction between mating systems and population dynamics, and we strongly encourage further work in this area.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.