Social regulation of reproduction: control or signal?

Benvenuto, Chiara; Lorenzi, Maria Cristina

Abstract

Traditionally, dominant breeders have been considered to be able to control the reproduction of other individuals in multimember groups that have high variance in reproductive success/reproductive skew (e.g., forced sterility/coercion of conspecifics in eusocial animals; sex-change suppression in sequential hermaphrodites). These actions are typically presented as active impositions by reproductively dominant individuals. However, how can individuals regulate the reproductive physiology of others? Alternatively, all contestants make reproductive decisions, and less successful individuals self-downregulate reproduction in the presence of dominant breeders. Shifting perspective from a top-down manipulation to a broader view, which includes all contenders, and using a multitaxon approach, we propose a unifying framework for the resolution of reproductive skew conflicts based on signalling rather than control, along a continuum of levels of strategic regulation of reproduction. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.]

Citation

Benvenuto, C., & Lorenzi, M. C. (in press). Social regulation of reproduction: control or signal?. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, S0169-5347(23)00132-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.009

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 12, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 28, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jul 4, 2023
• Journal: Trends in ecology & evolution
• Print ISSN: 0169-5347
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: S0169-5347(23)00132-5
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.009
• Keywords: dominance, hermaphroditism, communication, cooperative breeding, eusociality, social control