Sea level rise and the evolution of aggression on islands
Kenneth F. Rijsdijk,
Jasper C. Croll,
Julian P. Hume,
Anwar Janoo,
Robin Aguilée,
Johannes De Groeve,
Rosemarie Kentie,
Menno Schilthuizen,
Ben H. Warren,
Leon P.A.M. Claessens
Affiliations
Kenneth F. Rijsdijk
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), TCE, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94240, Amsterdam 1090 GE, The Netherlands; Corresponding author
Jasper C. Croll
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), TCE, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94240, Amsterdam 1090 GE, The Netherlands; Corresponding author
Julian P. Hume
Bird Group, Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Akeman St, Herts, Tring HP23 6AP, UK
Anwar Janoo
National Heritage Fund, Fon Sing Building, Edith Cavell St., Port Louis, Mauritius
Robin Aguilée
Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE; UMR5300), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse INP, Université Toulouse 3 - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Toulouse, France
Johannes De Groeve
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), TCE, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94240, Amsterdam 1090 GE, The Netherlands
Rosemarie Kentie
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), TCE, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94240, Amsterdam 1090 GE, The Netherlands; Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), P.O. Box 59, Den Burg, Texel 1790 AB, The Netherlands
Menno Schilthuizen
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, Leiden 2300 RA, The Netherlands
Ben H. Warren
Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE, UA, Paris, France
Leon P.A.M. Claessens
Maastricht Science Programme, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, Maastricht 6200 MD, The Netherlands; Corresponding author
Summary: Why aggressive traits evolve in some species but not in others is poorly understood. We modeled the population dynamics of the extinct Mauritius dodo and Rodrigues solitaire to examine divergent pathways in the evolution of aggression. Whereas the dodo conformed to island syndrome predictions of tameness, its sister-taxon the solitaire evolved strong sexual dimorphism and aggressive traits. We computed rates of change in island size from sea level modeling and connected island size change to population dynamics by integrating a Hawk-Dove game theory model for territory competition with a population model. We find that the rapid rate of decrease in island size likely was an important trigger for the onset of aggressive behavior and that aggressive behavior becomes fixed if a tipping point is reached where island size falls below a critical threshold.
