Life History Evolution

Question 0

Lifetime Reproductive Success can be maximised by selection, but not all of the traits. What are the traits?

Answer 0

Fast development
Rapid maturity
High parental investment
High reproductive rate
Long life

Question 1

Phases of life history:

Answer 1

Growth and development
Recruitment into reproduction
Lifetime distribution of reproduction
Post reproductive life (rare)

Question 2

Resources are limited which makes LRS

Answer 2

A trade off as reproduction is costly and time consuming!

Question 3

Long life and high parental investment

Answer 3

Are trade offs

Question 4

Intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence the strategy:

Answer 4

Physiological constraints and ecological factors

Question 5

Age and size at maturity: costs and benefits of early?

Answer 5

Smaller, low quality offspring and shorter life/reproductive events
Faster reproduction and higher probability of survival to maturity
TRADE OFF between life history traits

Question 6

No and size of offspring is a trade off between the 2, why?

Answer 6

Better survival if larger but need to maximise overall reproductive value, not the current offspring. Intermediate reproduction may maximise fitness

Question 7

Age repeated decline in reproduction has 2 modes

Answer 7

antagonistic pleiotropy - deleterious in early life but may be beneficial in later life or vice versa
Mutation accumulation - deleterious later life mutations maintained in populations as selection most effective for life stages with high reproductive rate

Question 8

Iteroparous =

Answer 8

Greater fecundity at older age or environmental variation

Question 9

Semelparous =

Answer 9

Exponential relationship between body mass and reproductive output or probability survival increases with growth