The effect of environmental change on plastic sex-ratio strategies
Abstract
Offspring sex ratio manipulation has been widely studied, with numerous adaptive explanations proposed for biased sex ratios. While sex-ratio trends have been observed in many species, such patterns often disappear over time within populations or differ across populations. Environmental change is frequently proposed as underlying these inconsistencies, particularly for strategies relying on environmental cues. A textbook example comes from the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus seychellensis) study, where an initially reported environment-dependent sex-ratio trend could not be found in later years, possibly due to environmental change. Using an individual-based simulation inspired by the Seychelles warbler system, we tested how environmental change affects environmentally determined sex-ratio strategies. Our results indicate that such strategies are unlikely to disappear but instead shift to fit new environmental conditions. When strategies rely on multiple cues, strategies may remain constant, yet the relative importance of the cues may change. Moreover, in some cases, environmental improvement can, paradoxically, lead to population extinction, if the population sex ratio becomes extremely biased. More generally, plastic strategies have evolved to be adaptive within the environmental range they have been exposed to and are therefore not always adaptive in new environments outside this range, which, in extreme cases, can lead to population extinction.
Related
- Tropical rainforest versus savannah: Biome-specific landscape structure mediates adaptive strategies and resilience to environmental change
- Plant adaptive strategies respond to environmental change across European grassland habitats
- Editorial: Plant responses to environmental change
- Editorial: Environmental challenges from global warming/climate change, urbanization and pollution to wild birds and poultry
- Rapid trait adaptation has contrasting effects on different dimensions of stability under environmental change
BibTeX
@misc{borger2026effect,
title = {{The effect of environmental change on plastic sex-ratio strategies}},
author = {Mirjam Borger and Jan Komdeur and David S Richardson and Magdalena Kozielska},
howpublished = {EcoEvoRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.32942/x27t2t},
url = {https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/14735/},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The effect of environmental change on plastic sex-ratio strategies
AU - Mirjam Borger
AU - Jan Komdeur
AU - David S Richardson
AU - Magdalena Kozielska
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - EcoEvoRxiv
DO - 10.32942/x27t2t
UR - https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/14735/
AB - Offspring sex ratio manipulation has been widely studied, with numerous adaptive explanations proposed for biased sex ratios. While sex-ratio trends have been observed in many species, such patterns often disappear over time within populations or differ across populations. Environmental change is frequently proposed as underlying these inconsistencies, particularly for strategies relying on environmental cues. A textbook example comes from the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus seychellensis) study, where an initially reported environment-dependent sex-ratio trend could not be found in later years, possibly due to environmental change. Using an individual-based simulation inspired by the Seychelles warbler system, we tested how environmental change affects environmentally determined sex-ratio strategies. Our results indicate that such strategies are unlikely to disappear but instead shift to fit new environmental conditions. When strategies rely on multiple cues, strategies may remain constant, yet the relative importance of the cues may change. Moreover, in some cases, environmental improvement can, paradoxically, lead to population extinction, if the population sex ratio becomes extremely biased. More generally, plastic strategies have evolved to be adaptive within the environmental range they have been exposed to and are therefore not always adaptive in new environments outside this range, which, in extreme cases, can lead to population extinction.
ER -