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Related Concept Videos

Life Histories01:29

Life Histories

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Overview
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Organisms must balance energy intake with the energy required for growth, maintenance and reproduction. These trade-offs result in a variety of survivorship and reproductive strategies, including semelparity and iteroparity. Semelparous species, like annual plants, have only one reproductive episode in their lifetimes and consequently have short lifespans. Iteroparous species, by contrast, have many reproductive events during their lifetimes but have relatively few offspring. These two...
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When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.
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Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
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Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.
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Related Experiment Video

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Methodology for Developing Life Tables for Sessile Insects in the Field Using the Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, in Cotton As a Model System
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Density Dependence Shapes Life-History Trade-Offs in a Food-Limited Population.

Harman Jaggi1, Wenyun Zuo1, Rosemarie Kentie2,3

  • 1Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.

Ecology Letters
|December 3, 2024
PubMed
Summary

Population density dynamically alters life-history trade-offs in Soay sheep. High density limits individual life history variation, impacting lifetime reproductive success (LRS) differently than predicted.

Keywords:
LRSdensity dependencedensity‐dependent selectionlife historytrade‐offstrait covariation

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Population Dynamics

Background:

  • Life-history theory emphasizes quantifying trade-offs, but studies often simplify these to two traits and assume static relationships.
  • Understanding how multiple traits covary and are influenced by population density is crucial for a comprehensive view.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a framework for analyzing multi-trait covariation and density-dependent influences on life-history strategies.
  • To investigate the dynamic nature of life-history trade-offs in response to varying population densities.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized detailed individual-based data from a Soay sheep population.
  • Analyzed the influence of population density on life-history traits and lifetime reproductive success (LRS).

Main Results:

  • Population density significantly shapes life-history trade-offs and the distribution of LRS.
  • At low density, juvenile survival and growth trade-offs are key; at high density, reproduction and juvenile survival trade-offs dominate.
  • Contrary to predictions, high density resulted in limited LRS variation among large juveniles and adults.

Conclusions:

  • Life-history trade-offs are dynamic and density-dependent, not static.
  • High population density restricts the diversity of individual life histories.
  • Findings have implications for understanding evolution through density-dependent selection.