Trade-off

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Trade-off (English trade off "balance") or exchange relationship generally describes a reverse dependence: If the one better, the other worse at the same time (see also inverse proportionality ).

In addition, the term also describes efforts to weigh carefully . In this context , trade-off is translated as cost-benefit analysis , compromise and balancing out the conflicting goals .

Economy

In economics , trade-off describes e.g. B. the opposing dependency on costs and quality or, in economic policy , the magic square : to achieve high quality, you have to accept high costs. If you cut costs, so does quality. There is therefore a trade-off between these two properties that has to be decided again and again in each specific case. You try to find the best possible combination (see also resource allocation ).

ecology

In ecology , the term describes Fitness disadvantages, which an organism in better adaptation to a particular environmental factor suffers necessarily with respect to other environmental factors. The advantage in one area is therefore “bought” by an unavoidable disadvantage in another area.

For example, the properties that enable a plant species to survive particularly well in competition between different species (technical term: Interspecific competition ) (investment mainly in supporting tissue in order to achieve greater growth height) are a disadvantage when it comes to the speed of colonization resulting habitats (investment mainly in seeds). A species that grows particularly quickly under nutrient-rich conditions and can thus crowd out competitors is, under certain circumstances, disadvantaged under nutrient-poor conditions due to exactly the same properties due to higher nutrient loss rates. A larger animal species can displace a smaller one in direct competition, but precisely because of its size it can be more susceptible to predators. A translation of the term is not common in ecology.

Sociobiology

In sociobiology , the term is translated as "comparison" according to Eckart Voland . Accordingly, the individuals try to solve matching problems with their social behavior . These are about increasing reproductive fitness by making decisions about investing time, energy and life risks . In solving the matching problems through social behavior, one possibility of improving reproductive fitness is dispensed with, while another is perceived. The underlying model for explaining social behavior is an economic one. Alignment problems are based on allocation conflicts.

An example of a matching problem that arises in an individual's life story is e.g. B. the decision about whether it should continue to invest in itself or whether it should move on to procreate. Another is whether it should reproduce itself at all or whether it should instead support the reproductive efforts of its relatives. From the respective solution that an individual finds for this type of matching problem, individual life stories arise and, from an evolutionary point of view, animal and human personalities that have characteristic interests and feature profiles.

See also

  • The multi-objective optimization (up opportunities to improve with a change in all aspects, exhausted) strives for a final situation in which no aspect can be better without worsening another.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Tilman (1990): Constraints and tradeoffs: toward a predictive theory of competition and succession. - Oikos 58: 3-15.
  2. ^ Rien Aerts (1999): Interspecific competition in natural plant communities: mechanisms, trade-offs and plant-soil feedbacks. Journal of Experimental Botany 50 (330): 29-37.
  3. ^ Gary A. Wellborn (2002): Trade-off between competitive ability and antipredator adaptation in a freshwater amphipod species complex. Ecology 83: 129-136. doi : 10.1890 / 0012-9658 (2002) 083 [0129: TOBCAA] 2.0.CO; 2
  4. ^ Eckart Voland: Sociobiology. The evolution of cooperation and competition. Heidelberg, 3rd edition 2009, pp. 168ff.
  5. ^ Wolf et al .: Life-history trade-offs favor the evolution of animal personalities. in: Nature 447, pp. 581-585.