Animal Social Network Structures Across the Fast-Slow Continuum

Abstract

The fast-slow continuum is a key axis of variation in life history strategies capturing the evolutionary trade-off between allocation in lifespan versus reproduction. It has been suggested that social behaviour, and therefore network structure, may vary across this continuum, but formal theory remains scarce. We develop a mathematical model to examine how the rate of demographic replacement may influence emergent social network structures under a range of social preferences and modes of social inheritance. Our key finding is that rapid demographic replacement can constrain emergent social network structure. We predict that generation time determines the drivers of variation in network structures; for longer generation times, emergent network properties are primarily influenced by social preferences, whereas for shorter generation times it is social inheritance. Variation in generation time alone can lead to substantial shifts in network properties; therefore, diversity in life history strategies can help explain diversity in social network structures.