Life history characteristics

Repair
Growth

Metabolism
Reproduction

Organisms face fundamental trade-offs in their use of energy and time

Changes in life history are caused by changes in the allocation of energy

Trouble with tribbles
tuna
-many small eggs
-grow quickly, reproduce early
-reproduce daily

dogshark
-few large eggs
-grow slowly, reproduce after 25 years
-reproduce every few years
 Life history parameters

Number & size of offspring

Age distribution of reproduction

Life span
 Life history parameters

Number & size of offspring

Age distribution of reproduction

Life span
 Number & size of offspring

Organisms face a trade-off between making many low-quality offspring or a few

high-quality offspring
Number & size of offspring
 Number & size of offspring

fish insects
 Number & size of offspring

Optimum size & number compromise

11
 Number & size of offspring

Selection on parents favors a compromise between the quality and quantity

of offspring

But selection on individual offspring favors high quality

 Number & size of offspring

Lack’s hypothesis

selection will favor the clutch size that produces the most surviving offspring
Number & size of offspring

Lack’s hypothesis
 Lack’s hypothesis

assumes only effect of

clutch size on offspring is
in determining whether the
offspring survive
 Lack’s hypothesis

assumes no trade-off between a parent’s reproductive effort 1 year and its survival
or reproductive performance in future years
 Life history parameters

Number & size of offspring

Age distribution of reproduction

Life span
 Age distribution of reproduction

fruit fly cicada

 Age distribution of reproduction

In populations where mortality rates are high, individuals tend to breed earlier in life

However, a trade-off exists between reproductive effort early in life and reproductive
success late in life
Age distribution of reproduction
Age distribution of reproduction
 Life history parameters

Number & size of offspring

Age distribution of reproduction

Life span
Life span
 Life span

As individuals age, the benefit of withholding energy from reproduction declines

(risk of death, disease, accumulation of mutations)

So, at some point, the proportion of energy devoted to reproduction by

iteroparous species increases with age
Semelparity
single reproductive event
Pacific salmon

Iteroparity
multiple reproductive events
Atlantic salmon
When mates are not monogamous, the life history strategy that is optimal for one
sex may be suboptimal for the other

Male reproductive success

alternative mating tactics

sneaker males

sequential hermaphroditism
protandry
protogeny
 Sequential hermaphroditism

protogeny protandry
 Sequential hermaphroditism

no change protogeny protandry

 Life history parameter characteristics

Characteristics that would maximize r (fitness):

higher survival through reproductive ages

higher fecundity at each reproductive age

higher fecundity especially early in life

longer reproductive lifespan

earlier age of first reproductive

Constraints

phylogenetic

genetic

physiological