Life History

Evolution of Life Histories Involves Trade-offs

o Life history lifetime pattern of growth, development and reproduction
o Trade offs: when a beneficial change in one trait is associated with a detrimental
change in another
o Each individual has a limited amount of resources that it can allocate to specific
tasks. Its allocation to one task reduces the resources available for the others.
Thus, allocation to reproduction reduces the amount of resources available
for growth
o Trade-offs are imposed by constraints of physiology, energetics, and the
prevailing physical and biotic environmentthe organisms habitat
As such, the evolution of an organisms life history reflects the interaction
between intrinsic and extrinsic factors
Extrinsic ecological factors such as the physical environment and the
presence of predators or competitors directly influence age specific rates
of mortality and survivorship
Intrinsic factors relating to phylogeny (the evolutionary history of the
species), patterns of development, genetics, and physiology impose
constraints resulting in trade-offs among traits
Reproduction involves both benefits and costs to individual fitness
o Behavioral, physiological, and energetic activities involved in reproduction
extract some sort of cost to future reproductive success in the form of reduced
survival, fecundity, and/or growth
o 1. activities associated with the acquisition of a mate
o 2. defense of a breeding territory
o 3. feeding and protection of young, as well as the direct physiological costs of
reproduction
o reproduction can also directly reduce an individuals ability to produce future
offspring. The current reproductive expenditure might leave the individual with
insufficient energy resources to produce the same number of offspring during
future periods of reproduction
o increased allocation of resources to reproduction relative to growth diminished
future fecundity.
Allocation to reproduction has been shown to reduce allocation to growth
o Individual reproducing earlier in age will produce fewer offspring per
reproductive period than an individual that postpones reproduction in favor of
additional growth
act of reproduction at a given age therefore has potential implications to
both age-specific patterns of mortality (survivorship) and fecundity (birth
rate) moving forward.
For this reason, the age at which reproduction beginsthe age at maturity
is a key aspect of the organisms life history.
Age at maturity is influenced by patterns of age-specific mortality

o If natural selection functions to maximize the relative fitness of the individual,

then the age and size at maturity are optimized when the difference between the
costs and benefits of maturation at different ages/sizes is maximize
o Both extrinsic and intrinsic factors influence evolution of age at maturity
Natural selection will favor the age at maturity that results in the greatest
number of offspring produced over the lifetime of an individual
o Primary fitness advantage of delaying maturity is the larger initial body size
obtained by individuals when they first reproduce
primary cost of delaying reproduction (late maturity) is the increased risk
of death prior to reproduction, or death before the advantage of increased
fecundity as a result of delayed maturity are fully realized
o Selection should be expected to favor genotypes that mature earlier (prior to those
ages), thus increasing their probability of contributing genes to future generations
Increased age at maturity was accompanied by a larger average size at age
of maturity for females, and the production of fewer, but larger offspring
Reproductive effort is governed by trade offs
o Fecundity is the number of offspring produced per unit of time (bx), but the
energetic costs of reproduction include a wide variety of physiological and
behavioral activities in addition to the energy and nutrient demands of the
reproductive event, including gonad development, movement to spawning area,
competition for mates, nesting, and parental care.
Together, the total energetic costs of reproduction per unit time are
referred to as an individuals reproductive effort
o Amount of energy organisms invests in reproduction varies
o Probability of future survival (and therefore future reproduction) is low, so early
maturity and high reproductive effort will maximize individual fit- ness.
Conversely, an increased juvenile mortality results in delayed maturity and
reduced reproductive effort
o Female inhabiting the high mortality environment have a significantly higher
allocation to reproduction than those inhabiting low mor- tality environments.
o Variation in allocation to reproduction were found to be related to patterns of
mortality caused by extrinsic factors (predation or extreme temperatures).
o Allocation to reproduction at any time during the life of an individual involves
trade-offs between current benefits from the production of offspring and costs in
terms of potential reduction in future reproduction. Natural selection should
function to optimize the trade-off between present and future reproduction.
o Optimized life history is one that resolves conflicts between the competing
demands for survival and reproduction to the best advantage of the individual in
terms of fitness
o Increased allocation to reproduction (energy expenditure to the feeding and caring
of offspring) resulted in a reduction in the probability of future survival of
parents, and therefore future reproduction
As a result of increase in energy expenditure, survival rate of patents
decreased with increasing brood size
Nestling survival rate declined with increasing brood size

o 1. as reproductive effort increased, the number of offspring increased, but the

probability of offspring survival decreased
current reproductive success is the product of the two: number of offspring
produced multiplied by the probability of their survival. As a result of the
inverse relationship between the number of offspring and their probability
of survival
o 2. As reproductive effort increased, parental survival decreased