Group Selection and Its Significance for Ecology

Abstract

This report evaluates recent theory concerning one extreme form of group selection in which the unit of selection is the entire breeding population. The increase of altruistic genes can occur within a narrow range of conditions by means of differential population extinction that might be sufficiently high in nature. But such extinction is far more prone to occur soon after the founding of populations than at carrying capacity, and it is therefore unlikely to lead to the evolution of population control mechanisms.