Ecological models of the maintenance of sexual reproduction

A generic model of the interaction between sexual and asexual morphs in an ecological context was developed from the lotka-Volterra model of the population dynamics of two competing species (Doncaster, Pound & Cox, 2000). This revealed the threshold difference between the resource niches of sexual and asexual populations that allows coexistence between the two morphs. Coexistence depended on the respective carrying capacities of the sexual and asexual competitors, which we showed to be contingent upon the intrinsic growth capacity of the sexual population. The analytical model was extended to study (a) competition between a sexual population and numerous asexual clones; (b) competition between two metapopulation. A special formulation of Slatkin’s (1974) three-dimensional model of two competing metapopulations was developed with Lotka-Volterra dynamics, which yielded novel predictions for the behaviour of local and regional communities of species.Coexistence between sexual and asexual morphs maybe unsustainable due to the accumulation of clonal diversity over time, and indeed coexistence is rarely observed in nature. To study the dynamics of this accumulation, a stochastic model was developed for competition between asexual clones and a genetically diverse sexual population that exploits a range of resource niches. A model of the accumulation of deleterious mutations over time was incorporated into this framework. Monte-Carlo simulations demonstrated that a sexual population may, over time, exclude asexual clones whose fitness deteriorates due to the accumulation of deleterious mutations. These results suggest that whilst coexistence between sexual and asexual morphs is possible over ecological timescales the long-term outcome of an asexual invasion is determined by: 1) The relationship between genetic variation and niche breadth in the sexual population. 2) The rate as which the relative fitness of the asexual population declines with mutation accumulation. Reciprocal scenarios of the invasion of an asexual population by sexual mutants and sexual colonists are also considered