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Related Experiment Videos

Lifetime reproductive effort.

Eric L Charnov1, Robin Warne, Melanie Moses

  • 1Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA. rlc@unm.edu

The American Naturalist
|January 4, 2008
PubMed
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This summary is machine-generated.

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Lifetime reproductive effort (LRE) is constant across species, averaging 1.4 times body mass. This finding is crucial for understanding life-history evolution in nongrowing populations.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Life-History Theory
  • Metabolic Ecology

Background:

  • Reproductive effort (RE) is the proportion of resources an organism allocates to reproduction.
  • G. C. Williams (1966) hypothesized that RE decreases as lifespan increases.
  • Lifetime reproductive effort (LRE) is calculated as RE multiplied by average adult lifespan.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test the hypothesis that LRE is approximately constant across species.
  • To develop metabolic life-history theory to predict LRE.
  • To investigate the role of LRE in fitness for nongrowing populations.

Main Methods:

  • Developed metabolic life-history theory to predict LRE.
  • Estimated LRE for mammals and lizards with varying growth and production rates.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analyzed LRE distributions and confidence intervals.

    • Main Results:

    • Predicted LRE is approximately 1.4 across diverse organisms.
    • Estimated LRE for lizards and mammals averaged 1.43 and 1.41, respectively.
    • LRE distributions were approximately normal.

    Conclusions:

    • LRE is a key component of fitness in nongrowing populations.
    • Lifetime reproductive effort is remarkably consistent across species, averaging 1.4 times body mass.
    • This consistency offers a unifying principle for life-history evolution.