7.12. (10/7) Life Histories Flashcards
How many offspring does an organism produce that live to reproduce?
on average, one
What are life histories?
Attributes of the schedule of an individual’s life
What are the different ways an organism produces one offspring that lives to reproduce?
- salmon go far to lay thousands of eggs, then dies
- elephant has one baby every several years (lots of energy to protect and care)
- loggerhead sea turtle buries dozens of eggs and leaves them to fend for themselves
- female mayfly lays 50-10k eggs as an adult for one day, then dies
what is age at maturity?
age of first reproduction
what is parity?
number of reproductive events
what is fecundity?
number of offspring produced per reproductive episode
What are life history traits?
- fecundity
- parity
- age of maturity
- size of offspring
- life span and aging
How does natural selection affect life histories?
- reproductive success depends on life history traits which influence evolutionary fitness
- they vary with respect to environmental factors/ habitats
what is the principle of allocation?
organisms have finite amounts of energy that they have to choose how to use because it affects each area differently
* reductions and trade-offs
* weigh potential costs of varied production
How does resource allocation affect fitness?
- increased seed production may lead to more offspring
- seed size is reduced in order to make more which could affect their survival as seedlings
- more energy is used to produced seeds rather than making roots for an adult tree which affects survival
- so much energy spent now can affect future seed production
Who has the largest seed? smallest?
- double coconut: few seeds of ~50 pounds
- spotted coralroot orchid: billions of seeds of ~0.000002 g
what kind of relationship exists between seed size and seed number?
there is a negative relationship between seed size and seed quantity where the smaller number of seeds produced yields a bigger size and the smaller the seed the more are made
When is it advantageous to produce a large number of small seeds?
areas with high disturbance
When is it advantageous to produce a small number of large seeds?
in stable environments with lots of plant biomass and competition because each is more capable of surviving environmental hazards
What causes variations in maturity age?
When the chances of an organism surviving to adulthood is low they use a lot of energy to reproduce at a younger age, but if they do survive, they wait until they have enough energy to reproduce (they also invest less resources for reproduction)
What is the trend for species that have high mortality/short lives?
they have a higher fecundity