The role of mate competition in speciation and divergence: A systematic review

Competition for mates can play a critical role in determining reproductive success, shaping phenotypic variation within populations, and influencing divergence. Yet, studies of the role of sexual selection in divergence and speciation have focused disproportionately on mate choice. Here, we synthesize the literature on how mate competition may contribute to speciation and integrate concepts from work on sexual selection within populations – mating systems, ecology, and mate choice. Using this synthesis, we generate testable predictions for how mate competition may contribute to divergence. Then, we identify the extent of existing support for these predictions in the literature with a systematic review of the consequences of mate competition for population divergence across a range of evolutionary, ecological, and geographic contexts. We broadly evaluate current evidence, identify gaps in available data and hypotheses that need testing, and outline promising directions for future work. A..., , , # The role of mate competition in speciation and divergence: a systematic review

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c59zw3rhq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c59zw3rhq)

## Description of the data and file structure

We comprehensively review the literature to synthesize the state of our knowledge on how mate competition contributes to population divergence and speciation.

### Files and variables

#### File: Male\_competition\_systematic\_review\.zip

**Description:** 

Folder: Male_competition_systematic_review

\-- file: mcomp_jeb.R = R script for all analyses and figures in paper except for IRR

\-- file: mcomp_metadata.csv = file explaining columns in mcomp.csv

\-- file: mcomp.csv = data file analyzed

\-- file: speciation pubs.csv = counts of comparable publications for \"speciation\", used to create Figure 1

\-- folder: IRR

    -- IRR_multi_column.csv = rater data for questions with multiple possible responses

    -- IRR_single_column.csv = rater data for questions with single poss...