380 likes | 450 Views
Sign up for: IB Spotlight Send email to: spezia@illinois.edu. Ch 11: Population Growth + Regulation dN/dt = rN dN/dt = rN(K-N)/K. BRING to LECTURE: PRINT of Lecture Outline 2) Pg. 75 in Manual. Ch 7: Life Histories and Evolution.
E N D
Ch 11: Population Growth + Regulation dN/dt = rN dN/dt = rN(K-N)/K • BRING to • LECTURE: • PRINT of Lecture Outline 2) Pg. 75 in Manual
Ch 7: Life Histories and Evolution Lifetime scheduling of resources and time to maximize fitness…
Objectives • Define life history • Explain how related to evolution • Resource allocation and tradeoffs • Correlated life history traits in contrasting environments • Explain evolution of life history traits • Age of maturity • Fecundity • Parity (no. times reproduce/lifetime) • Aging and lifespan
A search for a set of rules when particular traits affecting reproduction and survival may be favored by natural selection.
Life history results from rules and choices influencing survival and reproduction. Juvenile survival
Traits are correlated in contrasting environments. • Slow (often large organisms) • slow development • delayed maturity • low fecundity • high parental investment/offspring • low mortality • long life • Fast: opposite traits
Lack: life history in an evolutionary context. • As life history traits contribute to reproductive success, they influence evolutionary fitness. • Life histories vary consistently with environmental factors; hence may be molded by natural selection.
Life history: schedule of organism’s life, including: • age at first reproduction (maturity) • number and size of offspring (fecundity) • number of reproductive events (parity) • aging (life span) • The values of these traits are solutions to the problem of allocating limited time and resources among various structures, physiological functions, and behaviors.
Resource Allocation • Organisms face a problem of allocation of scarce resources. (compromise? or can organisms increase overall performance without tradingoff one function against another?)
***Describe, then explain this tradeoff: reproduction vs. mortality
What is the tradeoff between: parental investment vs. parental survival?
Energy + matter Alternative pathways for resource allocation growth reproduction maintenance immediate profit increased survival increased competitive ability increased numbers delayed profit reproduction
Life histories balance trade-offs between current reproduction and future reproduction. • Great variation among organisms in resolving the fundamental tradeoff between fecundity and adult growth and survival. • Principle: limited time and resources are allocated among competing functions so as to maximize lifetime reproductive success.
Tradeoffs: Allocation of time, energy, or materials devoted to one structure or function cannot be allotted to another. • Costs: Allocation to current reproduction involves tradeoff with survival, growth, and future reproduction.
Explain the law of ‘diminishing returns’: trade-off between fecundity vs. survival
Major life history traits • 1 Age of Maturity • 2 Fecundity • 3 Parity (# times reproduce) • 4 Aging and lifespan
What determines age of maturity? • Affects generation time and rate of entry of genes into gene pool • Benefit to not delay: immediate fecundity • Benefit to delay: (if have relatively long lifespan) may have age-related gains in fecundity from growth or experience • BUT cost to delay: • May have risk of mortality with time • May have reduced fecundity at later ages
Explain: Optimal age at maturity (i.e. maximize lifetime reproduction) varies in direct proportion to life span. e.g. determinate growth in a lizard: starts to reproduce after reaches maximum size
2) Fecundity: How many offspring per reproductive bout? • Fecundity vs. parental investment/offspring • seed size vs. seed number • egg size vs. egg number • Great variation in seed and egg size among species
Wide variation among organisms in life history traits. temperate tropical
***Experimental test of hypothesis:Number of eggs per clutch is limited byfood supply. Normal clutch size = 7.Do the data support the hypothesis? What type of selection does this demonstrate? Directional Stabilizing Is genetic variation being maintained or reduced?
Explain: adult longevity determines optimal allocation between growth and reproduction. e.g. indeterminate growth in fish (continue to grow throughout life; fecundity directly related to body size)
Summarize all graphs in one sentence. Explain this evolutionary shift in life histories. (selection by predators on both adults and young occurs)
Growth vs. Fecundity • If indeterminate growth, • Fecundity is related to body size; • Increased fecundity in one year reduces growth, and thus fecundity, in future. • Short-livedemphasize fecundity over growth • High extrinsic adult mortality rates favor increased reproductive effort, or investment in offspring, at expense of adult survival and future reproduction. • Long-lived emphasize growth over fecundity
3) Parity • How many times to reproduce per lifetime? • Semelparous • (monocarpic) once • Iteroparous • (polycarpic) repeated
If semelparous, at what year to undergo ‘big-bang’ reproduction? • Annual • Biennial • Long-lived
Semelparity: Hypothesis: When preparation for reproduction is extremely costly?
Why is cicada: Semelparous? Synchronous?
Semelparity: Hypotheses… • When payoff for reproduction is highly variable but favorable conditions are predictable? • When pollinators attracted to massive display?
Iteroparity: When low current reproduction results in maintaining high future reproduction.Perennials…Repeated breeders…
4)Aging and Lifespan • Senescence is a decline in physiological function with age. • Causes decline in fecundity and survival
Strength of selection varies with mortality rate. If high mortality, few reach old agelittle selection for mechanisms to prolong life.Would greenor orange have strongerselection todelay senescence?
Why does aging vary? • Not all organisms senesce at same rate, suggesting that aging may be subject to natural selection and evolutionary modification. • Strength of selection diminishes on traits expressed at progressively later ages.
*** Sample exam question Life history traits often represent ‘tradeoffs’. Graph the expected relationship for each pair of traits. Label axes. Then explain the nature of each tradeoff. A. Seed size vs. seed number 1. Graph 2. Explanation B. Number of offspring per breeding attempt vs. adult survival between successive breedings 1. Graph 2. Explanation C. What is the key assumption of tradeoffs?