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sex ratio

Sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. The primary sex ratio is the ratio at the time of conception, secondary sex ratio is the ratio at time of birth, and tertiary sex ratio is the ratio of mature organisms.Nancy S. Coney and W. C. Mackey. 1998. "The woman as final arbiter: a case for the facultative character of the human sex ratio," Journal of Sex Research 35 (May): 169-175..

The human sex ratio is of particular interest to anthropologists and demographers. In humans the secondary sex ratio is commonly assumed to be 105 boys to 100 girls (which sometimes is shortened to "a ratio of 105"). In human societies, however, sex ratios at birth or among infants may be considerably skewed by sex-selective abortion and infanticide.

In biology, sex ratio is defined as the proportion of males in the population.

Sex ratio theory

The theory of sex ratio is a field of study concerned with the accurate prediction of sex ratios in all sexual species, based on a consideration of their natural history. The field continues to be heavily influenced by Eric Charnov's 1982 book, Sex Allocation.Eric L. Charnov. (1982) Sex allocation. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. ISBN 0-691-08312-6 He defines five major questions, both for his book and the field in general (slightly abbreviated here):

For a dioecious species, what is the equilibrium sex ratio maintained by natural selection?

For a sequential hermaphrodite, what is the equilibrium sex order and time of sex change?

For a simultaneous hermaphrodite, what is the equilibrium allocation of resources to male versus female function in each breeding season?

Under what conditions are the various states of hermaphroditism or dioecy evolutionarily stable? When is a mixture of sexual types stable?

When does selection favour the ability of an individual to alter its allocation to male versus female function, in response to particular environmental or life history situations?

Biological research mostly concerns itself with sex allocation rather than sex ratio, sex allocation denoting the allocation of energy to either sex. Common research themes are the effects of local mate and resource competition (often abbreviated LMC and LRC, respectively).

Human sex ratio

In anthropology and demography, the human sex ratio is the sex ratio for Homo sapiens. Humans have a Fisherian sex ratio. In humans the secondary sex ratio is commonly assumed to be 105 boys to 100 girls (which sometimes is shortened to "a ratio of 105"). In human societies, however, sex ratios at birth or among infants may be considerably skewed by sex-selective abortion and infanticide.

Environmental

Spending equal amounts of resources to produce offspring of either sex is an evolutionarily stable strategy: if the general population deviates from this equilibrium by favoring one sex, one can obtain higher reproductive success with less effort by producing more of the other. For species where the cost of successfully raising one offspring is roughly the same regardless of its sex, this translates to an approximately equal sex ratio.

The bacterium wolbachia causes skewed sex ratios in some arthropod species as it kills males. Sex-ratio of adult populations of pelagic copepods is usually skewed towards dominance of females. However, there are differences in adult sex ratios between families: in families which females require multiple matings to keep producing eggs, sex ratios are less biased (close to 1); and in families which females can produce eggs continuously after only one mating, sex ratios are strongly skewed towards females.T. 2006. Sex, sex-ratios, and the dynamics of pelagic copepod populations. Oecologia 148(1):40-50http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0346-3.

Several species of reptiles have temperature-dependent sex determination, where incubation temperature of eggs determines the sex of the individual. In the American Alligator, for example, females are hatched from eggs incubated between 27.7° to 30 °C, where males are hatched from eggs 32.2–33.8 °C. In this method, however, all eggs in a clutch (20-50) will be of the same gender. In fact, the natural sex ratio of this species is five females to one male. Ferguson, Mark W.J., and Joanen, Ted (1982) Temperature of egg incubation determines sex in Alligator mississippiensis Nature 296, 850 - 853 (29 April 1982)

Dioecious plants secondary sex ratio and amount of pollen

It was found that the amount of fertilizing pollen can influence secondary sex ratio in dioecious plants. Increase in pollen amount leads to decrease in number of male plants in the progeny. This relationship was confirmed on four plant species from three families – Rumex acetosa (Polygonaceae),?rr?ns?. (1922) Geschlechtsbestimmung und Zahlenverhaltnis der Geschlechter beim Sauerampfer (Rumex acetosa). “Biol. Zbl.” 42, 465-480. Rychlewski J., Kazlmierez Z. (1975) Sex ratio in seeds of Rumex acetosa L. as a result of sparse or abundant pollination. “Acta Biol. Cracov” Scr. Bot., 18, 101-114. Melandrium album (Cariophyllaceae), Correns C. (1928) Bestimmung, Vererbung und Verteilung des Geschlechter bei den hoheren Pflanzen. Handb. Vererbungswiss., 2, 1-138. Mulcahy D. L. (1967) Optimal sex ratio in Silene alba. “Heredity” 22? 3, 41. Cannabis sativa Riede W. (1925) Beitrage zum Geschlechts- und Anpassungs-problem. “Flora” 18/19 and Humulus japonicus (Cannabinaceae). Kihara H., Hirayoshi J. (1932) Die Geschlechtschromosomen von Humulus japonicus. Sieb. et. Zuce. In: 8th Congr. Jap. Ass. Adv. Sci., p. 363—367 (cit.: Plant Breeding Abstr., 1934, 5,? 3, p. 248, ref.? 768).

Individual

In birds, mothers can influence the gender of their chicks. In peafowl, maternal body condition can influence the proportion of daughters in the range from 25% to 87%.Pike, T.W., and M. Petrie (2005). Maternal body condition and plasma hormones affect offspring sex ration in peafowl. Animal Behaviour 70(October), pp. 745-751; cited in http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070512/bob9.asp

In several different groups of fish, such as the Wrasses, Parrotfish, Clownfish, dichogamy — or sequential hermaphoditism — is normal. This can cause a discrepancy in the sex ratios as well. In the Bluestreak cleaner wrasse, there is only one male for every group of 6-8 females. If the male fish dies, the strongest female changes its sex to become the male for the group. All of these wrasse are born female, and only become male in this situation. Other species, like clownfish, do this in reverse, where all start out as non-reproductive males, and the largest male becomes a female, with the second-largest male maturing to become reproductive.

Economical

Traditionally, farmers have discovered that the most economically efficient community of animals will have a large number of females and a very small number of males. A herd of cows and a few prize bulls or a flock of chickens and one rooster are the most economical sex ratios for domesticated livestock.

References

Coale, Ansley J. (1996). "Five Decades of Missing Females in China," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 140 (4): 421-450.

Hamilton, W.D. (1967). Extraordinary sex ratios. Science 156: 477-488. pubmed JSTOR

Nishimura, K. & G. C. Jahn 1996. "Sex allocation of three solitary ectoparasitic wasp species on bean weevil larvae: sex ratio change with host quality and local mate competition," Journal of Ethology 14 (1): 27-34.

Trivers R. L. & Willard D. E. (1973). Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex ratio of offspring. Science 170 90-92.

Rath R.M., Mishra A.K. .Techniques for Sex Ratio Analysis(2005),Association of Professional Geographers.

External links

Declining sex ratios in industrialized countries - environmental hazards

Sex ratio in communities with high Hepatitis B favours boys

CIA listing of sex ratios for individual countries (including age divisions)

A review of sex ratio theory

The Evolutionary Theory of Sex: Sex Ratio

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Sex Ratio
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