In territorial species, non-territorial floaters may be critical to population dynamics. One theoretical framework, based on the assumption that floating is a strategic decision to forgo reproduction, predicts that selection maintains an abundant floater population even if low-quality territories are available. However, existing models make two critical assumptions: all individuals have equal competitive ability, and every individual in a population has access to every available territory. We assess the consequences of relaxing these assumptions in a model of asymmetric competition with a tradeoff between investment in competitiveness and reproductive success. Our results demonstrate that selection for greater competitiveness eliminates floater production unless the outcome of territorial contests has a strong stochastic component. Next, we suppose individuals can compete for territories only within a fixed neighborhood. If this constraint is sufficiently strong, our model predicts that a population will produce floaters. Finally, we show that our model makes novel predictions regarding the maintenance of trait variation and the relationship between this variation and the distribution of competitors among unequal territories.

中文翻译：

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不对称竞争和漂浮物动力学

在领土物种中，非领土漂浮物可能对种群动态至关重要。一个理论框架基于漂浮是放弃繁殖的战略决策的假设，预测即使有低质量的领土可用，选择也会保持丰富的漂浮种群。然而，现有模型做出了两个关键假设：所有个体都具有同等的竞争能力，并且群体中的每个个体都可以进入每个可用的领域。我们评估在不对称竞争模型中放宽这些假设的后果，并在竞争力投资和繁殖成功之间进行权衡。我们的结果表明，除非领土竞争的结果具有很强的随机成分，否则选择更高的竞争力会消除漂浮物的生产。下一个，我们假设个人只能在一个固定的邻域内争夺领土。如果此约束足够强，我们的模型会预测种群会产生漂浮物。最后，我们表明我们的模型对性状变异的维持以及这种变异与竞争者在不平等地区的分布之间的关系做出了新的预测。