absolute fitness

Gomulkiewicz R & Houle D 2009 Demographic and genetic constraints on evolution. Am Nat 174:E218-E229.

• the novel aspect of our approach is that it explicitly considers the joint dynamics of evolution and population size, revealing the direct demographic consequences of slow adaptive change or strong selection

• we assume hard selection
• (density-independent) absolute mean fitness W(z) is also the population's finite per capita growth rate

• the single-shift scenario has been shown to yield the best fit among a collection of simple evolutionary models to an extensive database on phenotypic divergence

• this study explores a new direction within evolutionary demography, an emerging field that considers the feedback between evolutionary and population dynamics
• previous work in "evo-demo" has considered the influence of evolution on population and community dynamics (...) or how demographic context influences patterns of selection
• our study, by comparison, demonstrates how demography can limit the genetic potential of populations for adaptive evolution