Better to Divorce than Be Widowed: The Role of Mortality and Environmental Heterogeneity in the Evolution of Divorce

Despite widespread interest in the evolution and implications of monogamy across taxa, less attention-especially theoretical-has been paid toward understanding the evolution of divorce (ending a socially monogamous pairing to find a new partner). Here, we develop a model of the evolution of divorce by females in a heterogeneous environment, where females assess territory quality as a result of their breeding success. Divorce results in females leaving poor territories disproportionally more often than good territories, while death of a partner occurs independent of territory quality, giving an advantage to divorce. Increasing environmental heterogeneity, a decreasing benefit of pair experience, and moderate survival rates favor the evolution of higher divorce rates, even in the absence of variance in individual quality and knowledge of available territories. Imperfect information about territory quality constrains the evolution of divorce, typically favoring divorce strategies that remain faithful to one's partner whenever successful reproduction occurs. Our model shows how feedbacks between divorce, widowhood, and the availability of territories are intricately linked in determining the evolutionary advantage of divorce. We detail testable predictions about populations that should be expected to divorce at high rates.

Automated summary

This article discusses the evolutionary theory of divorce (ending a socially monogamous pairing to find a new partner) and presents a model of female divorce in a heterogeneous environment. The study found that increasing environmental heterogeneity, decreasing benefit of pair experience, and moderate survival rates favor the evolution of higher divorce rates.