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Related Experiment Video

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Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

Dynamic heterogeneity and life histories.

Shripad Tuljapurkar¹, Ulrich K Steiner

¹Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. tulja@stanford.edu

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

|August 27, 2010

Summary

Dynamic heterogeneity explains persistent individual differences in fitness components like lifespan and reproduction. This study uses dynamic models to track phenotypic changes and their impact on fitness across the life course in animal populations.

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Area of Science:

Biodemography
Evolutionary Biology
Population Ecology

Background:

Biodemography increasingly examines persistent individual differences in fitness components (e.g., lifespan, reproductive success) and health across species.
Understanding the sources of variation in fitness-related traits is crucial for population dynamics and evolutionary studies.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose and illustrate a dynamic modeling approach to study individual variation in fitness components.
To introduce the concept of 'dynamic heterogeneity' as the accumulation of fitness differences over the life course.
To demonstrate the application of multistate capture-mark-recapture models for analyzing longitudinal phenotypic data.

Main Methods:

Development of dynamic models for observable individual phenotypes.
Application of multistate capture-mark-recapture models to longitudinal data from an animal population.
Using reproduction as a phenotypic character to define life-course stages within the model.

Main Results:

The proposed stage-structured model effectively describes the nature of individual variation generated by dynamic heterogeneity.
Demonstrated how dynamic phenotypic changes lead to accumulating fitness differences over an individual's life.
Empirical example illustrated the application of the model in an animal population.

Conclusions:

Dynamic heterogeneity is a key concept for understanding individual variation in fitness.
The proposed modeling framework is applicable to various phenotypic characteristics in both animals and humans.
This approach connects to ongoing research in human mortality, disability, health, and life course theory.