Continuously stable strategies as evolutionary branching points

TL;DR

This paper explores how higher-order vanishing of invasion fitness functions at stable strategies can enable evolutionary branching, challenging the traditional view that CSSs are endpoints of evolution.

Contribution

It demonstrates that higher-order vanishing fitness functions at CSSs can allow for evolutionary branching, expanding the understanding of diversification mechanisms.

Findings

Higher-order vanishing fitness functions can lead to evolutionary branching from CSSs.

Mutant types reaching a threshold frequency can trigger diversification.

Evolutionary diversification can occur after convergence to a CSS.

Abstract

Evolutionary branching points are a paradigmatic feature of adaptive dynamics, because they are potential starting points for adaptive diversification. The antithesis to evolutionary branching points are Continuously stable strategies (CSS's), which are convergent stable and evolutionarily stable equilibrium points of the adaptive dynamics and hence are thought to represent endpoints of adaptive processes. However, this assessment is based on situations in which the invasion fitness function determining the adaptive dynamics have non-zero second derivatives at a CSS. Here we show that the scope of evolutionary branching can increase if the invasion fitness function vanishes to higher than first order at a CSS. Using a class of classical models for frequency-dependent competition, we show that if the invasion fitness vanishes to higher orders, a CSS may be the starting point for evolutionary branching, with the only additional requirement that mutant types need to reach a certain threshold frequency, which can happen e.g. due to demographic stochasticity. Thus, when invasion fitness functions vanish to higher than first order at equilibrium points of the adaptive dynamics, evolutionary diversification can occur even after convergence to an evolutionarily stable strategy.