Higher genetic variance of prey defense promotes fluctuation-dependent species coexistence

Understanding the stable coexistence of competing species despite the competitive exclusion principle has been a central topic in ecology. Previous studies revealed that rapid contemporary evolution can promote species coexistence, but the mechanisms behind coexistence are not fully understood. A recent study showed that predator evolution can promote fluctuation-dependent species coexistence. Here, I propose a new mechanism where prey rapid evolution due to high genetic variance can also promote fluctuation-dependent coexistence of competing predator species. Previous experimental and theoretical studies demonstrated that the rapid evolution of a prey defense trait can cause predator-prey population cycles. Although those studies focused on a system with a single predator species, I show that the population fluctuations driven by prey rapid evolution can promote the coexistence of two competing predator species via a gleaner-opportunist trade-off. By expanding the framework of modern c..., , # Higher genetic variance of prey defense promotes fluctuation-dependent species coexistence

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.0000000g8](10.5061/dryad.0000000g8)

## Description of the data and file structure

A Mathematica notebook (.nb and .pdf) to analyze ordinary differential equations for understanding how higher genetic variance of prey defense promotes fluctuation-dependent species coexistence.

### Files and variables

* SupplementaryMaterial.nb

This file can be opened by Wolfram Mathematica.

* SupplementaryMaterial.pdf

A PDF version of \"SupplementaryMaterial.nb\".

### Contents

1. Quantitative trait model (Figs. 1, S1-S3, Appendices S1-S2)
1. Appendix S1: General analyses of the quantitative trait model
2. Appendix S2: Detailed analyses of a model based on Abrams & Matsuda (1997) *Evolution*
3. Fig. 1a: Competitive exclusion when the prey genetic variance is low
4. Fig. S1a: The gleaner-opportunist trade-off
5. Fig. S1b: The growth-defense trade-off for disruptive...,