LONG-TERM EVOLUTION, SHORT-TERM EVOLUTION, AND POPULATION GENETIC THEORY

This paper is intended to reconcile the two most widely used approache s to quantitative evolutionary theory: exact population genetic analys is and purely phenotypic analysis commonly cast in terms of population game theory or evolutionary stable strategies (ESS). To this end, we introduce a dichotomy between long-and short-term evolution. The latte r is the domain of most population genetic theory while the former pro vides a paradigm to connect population genetics with population game t heory. Convergence to an ESS in multilocus genetic systems is discusse d in terms of long-term evolution. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.