Mathematical Modeling of Role Selection Dynamics Among Obligate Cooperative Breeders
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Glenn Young
Department
CSM - Mathematics
Abstract
Cooperative breeding is a social system in which individuals, often called helpers, forgo reproduction to provide alloparental care to young. By expending energy and delaying reproduction, helpers provide care at a personal fitness cost. This motivates an important evolutionary question: under what conditions is it beneficial to act altruistically rather than selfishly in a cooperatively breeding social group? To address this question, we developed a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that combine population dynamics with game-theoretic role selection dynamics in a population of obligate cooperative breeders where each individual can choose one of two roles: breeder or helper. We studied our model using a combination of mathematical analysis and MATLAB simulations. Through this analysis, we determined conditions under which the population persists or dies off.
Disciplines
Applied Mathematics | Biology | Mathematics | Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Research Methods in Life Sciences
Mathematical Modeling of Role Selection Dynamics Among Obligate Cooperative Breeders
Cooperative breeding is a social system in which individuals, often called helpers, forgo reproduction to provide alloparental care to young. By expending energy and delaying reproduction, helpers provide care at a personal fitness cost. This motivates an important evolutionary question: under what conditions is it beneficial to act altruistically rather than selfishly in a cooperatively breeding social group? To address this question, we developed a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that combine population dynamics with game-theoretic role selection dynamics in a population of obligate cooperative breeders where each individual can choose one of two roles: breeder or helper. We studied our model using a combination of mathematical analysis and MATLAB simulations. Through this analysis, we determined conditions under which the population persists or dies off.