Smaller is better in competition for space

Abstract

Body size is a prominent morphological trait which affects many aspects of an organism’s life. Although large body size is generally considered to be advantageous, ecologists have wondered about the benefits of being small. Many studies of body size depend on the metabolic theory of ecology since body size is an irremovable part of an organism’s energy budget. Body size is also a spatial quantity and therefore is linked to spatial processes. Here, I show that competition for space leads to a benefit of being small and hence selects for increasingly smaller body size. I build a deterministic population dynamics model and a stochastic model of birth, death and dispersal in a population of individuals with two different body sizes and show that only the smaller individuals survive. I also extend the population dynamics model to continuously varying body sizes and include a stabilizing natural selection for an intermediate body size. I find that the intrinsic advantage of smaller body size in competition for space can only be overcome when natural selection for a large body size is sufficiently strong. Overall, my results point to a novel benefit of being small.