7.12. (10/7) Life Histories Flashcards

1
Q

How many offspring does an organism produce that live to reproduce?

A

on average, one

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2
Q

What are life histories?

A

Attributes of the schedule of an individual’s life

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3
Q

What are the different ways an organism produces one offspring that lives to reproduce?

A
  • 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
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4
Q

what is age at maturity?

A

age of first reproduction

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5
Q

what is parity?

A

number of reproductive events

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6
Q

what is fecundity?

A

number of offspring produced per reproductive episode

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7
Q

What are life history traits?

A
  • fecundity
  • parity
  • age of maturity
  • size of offspring
  • life span and aging
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8
Q

How does natural selection affect life histories?

A
  • reproductive success depends on life history traits which influence evolutionary fitness
  • they vary with respect to environmental factors/ habitats
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9
Q

what is the principle of allocation?

A

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

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10
Q

How does resource allocation affect fitness?

A
  • 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
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11
Q

Who has the largest seed? smallest?

A
  • double coconut: few seeds of ~50 pounds
  • spotted coralroot orchid: billions of seeds of ~0.000002 g
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12
Q

what kind of relationship exists between seed size and seed number?

A

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

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13
Q

When is it advantageous to produce a large number of small seeds?

A

areas with high disturbance

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14
Q

When is it advantageous to produce a small number of large seeds?

A

in stable environments with lots of plant biomass and competition because each is more capable of surviving environmental hazards

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15
Q

What causes variations in maturity age?

A

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)

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16
Q

What is the trend for species that have high mortality/short lives?

A

they have a higher fecundity

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17
Q

what are semelparous organisms?

A

organisms that only reproduce once and die
* big bang

18
Q

What are iteroparous organisms?

A

reproduce multiple times in their life

19
Q

How are life histories classified?

A

they are based of population characteristics of fecundity, survival, relative offspring size, and age of reproductive maturity

20
Q

what is mx?

A

fecundity

21
Q

what is Ix?

A

survival

22
Q

By who and when were r and K selection defined

A

By MacArthur and Wilson in the 1960s

23
Q

what are r selection species?

A

Favors high potential population growth rate in species that colonize new or disturbed habitats

24
Q

what are K selection species?

A

Favors those that are good at attaining resources and maintain their populations at carrying capacity

25
Q

What is distinct about the r and K selection definition?

A

This definition exists at the ends of a continuum and relates population dynamics to their environment

26
Q

what are characteristics of a r selection species?

A
  • high population increases
  • bad competitor
  • rapid development of life stages
  • early reproduction with one event (semelparity)
  • small body size with many small offspring
27
Q

what are characteristics of a K selection species?

A
  • competitive
  • low population increases
  • slow development
  • late reproduction many times (iteroparity)
  • large body size
28
Q

What are two species that represent r and K selection well?

A

mice as an r selection species and elephants as K (for mammals)

29
Q

What is the Grime’s Scheme?

A

states that intensity of disturbance and stress are the two important variables that affect the life history characteristics of plants

30
Q

What does intensity of disturbance mean?

A

how intense and limiting the periodic process of biomass removal was for plants

31
Q

what does intensity of stress mean?

A

how much external pressure and constraint limits rate of growth
* examples include nutrient poor, extreme weather

32
Q

what are the three kinds of habitats according to Grime’s Scheme?

A
  1. low disturbance-low stress
  2. low disturbance-high stress
  3. high disturbance-low stress
    (form a triangle)
33
Q

Who are the competitors?

A
  • they are at the top of the grime’s scheme triangle with low disturbance and low stress
  • lots of plants grow here so they compete for available resources
34
Q

Who are the stress tolerators?

A
  • they are on the left side of grime’s scheme triangle with low disturbance and high stress
  • high background stress like deserts
35
Q

who are the ruderals?

A
  • they are on the right side of grime’s scheme triangle with high disturbance and low stress
  • they are good at occupying habitats that are disturbed (lawns)
36
Q

what are the characteristics of stress tolerators?

A
  • limited resources
  • allocate/conserve resources to defense, maintenance, adaption
  • grow slowly
  • vegetative/asexual reproduction
  • variable life form
  • leathery, needles leaf form
  • evergreen leaves
  • late reproductive maturity
  • slow potential growth rate
  • long longevity
  • low proportion of energy used to make seeds
  • vegetative reproduction is often important
37
Q

what are the characteristics of ruderals?

A
  • colonize disturbed habitats
  • rapid growth
  • invest a lot of resources/energy to reproduction
  • mature quickly
  • produce many seeds (easily dispersed)
  • r strategists
  • herb life form
  • variable leaf form
  • herbaceous life form
  • variable leaf form
  • deciduous leaves
  • early reproductive maturity
  • rapid potential growth rate
  • short longevity
  • high energy invested in seed production
  • vegetative reproduction is rarely important
38
Q

what are the characteristics of competitors?

A
  • grow rapidly large
  • allocate energy toward early growth
  • good at obtaining resources
  • long lifespan
  • variable life form
  • variable leaf form
  • variable life form/leaf form
  • deciduous leaves
  • late reproductive maturity
  • fast or slow potential growth rate
  • moderate to long longevity
  • low energy for seeds
  • vegetative reproduction is sometimes important
39
Q

what is phenology?

A

timing of biological events that are playing out over a year
- when a particular species leaf out, set flower, set seed

40
Q

who is Aldo Leopold? What was discovered because of him?

A
  • In the 1930s and 40s, he kept a notebook about the timing of flowering and spring bird events
  • advancement of spring events
41
Q

Why does changing phenology matter?

A

if all species started their activities earlier there would be no problem, but since only some species are shifting, it disrupts important ecological interactions for dependent species