phenotypic selection
Kingsolver JG, Diamond SE, Siepielski AM & Calson SM 2012 Synthetic analyses of phenotypic selection in natural populations: lessons, limitations and future directions. Evol Ecol 26:1101-1118.
- studies of selection consistently show that selection through variation in fecundity is stronhger than selection through survival
- studies of elasticities and population demography instead suggest that survival makes a much more important contribution to population growth rates
- the strength of nonlinear selection on sets of multivariate traits has been regularly underestimated as a consequence of ignoring nonlinear correlational selection acting on pairs of traits
- when correlational selection is present, understanding nonlinear selection on that pair of traits requires identifying the major axes of the quadratic response surface, which can be done through canonical analysis
- this approach argues for considering nonlinear selection as a whole, instead of separating univariate estimates of quadratic selection (stabilizing, disruptive) from bivariate (correlational) ones
- the strength of nonlinear selection is likely stronger than that indicated by univariate estimates considered in isolation
- it is often difficult to give biological interpretation to the multivariate canonical axes
- there is a tradeoff between reducing dimensionality at the cost of interpretability
