Effect of Variability in Recruitment on Selection for Protogynous Sex Change

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Abstract
Protogynous hermaphroditism should be selected for when the reproductive success of small females is higher than that of small males but the reproductive success of large females is lower than that of large males. Under such conditions, an individual maximizes its lifetime reproductive success by breeding as a female when small and as male when large. I use simulation models to examine the influence of fluctuations in recruitment levels on selection for protogynous hermaphroditis. When the age (size) structure of the population is altered, fluctuating recruitment changes the relative reproductive success of males and females at large and small sizes. As a result, when recruitment fluctuates, the proportion of protogynous hermaphroditis in a population of gonochores increases more rapidly, and under a wider range of fecundity and survival schedules and proportions of the total population consisting of breeding males, than when recruitment is held constant.