Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Benjamin Larue, Fanie Pelletier, Steeve D. Cote, Sandra Hamel, Marco Festa-Bianchet
Summary: Life-history theory predicts energy allocation trade-offs between traits when resources are limited. This study evaluated growth versus reproduction trade-offs in female bighorn sheep and mountain goats, finding that growth traits can accurately predict reproductive history. The predictive models based on annual growth could assist conservation and management in a broad range of species.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Jules Dezeure, Alice Baniel, Alecia Carter, Guy Cowlishaw, Bernard Godelle, Elise Huchard
Summary: This study on wild chacma baboons identifies two optimal birth timings in their annual cycle, maximizing offspring survival or minimizing maternal interbirth intervals. Observed births are most frequent between these optima, suggesting an adaptive trade-off between current and future reproduction.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Ecology
David M. Anderson, James F. Gillooly
Summary: Different species have varying strategies in allocating resources to offspring size and number, with tradeoffs between offspring survivorship and fecundity limiting reproductive success. Research shows that survivorship tends to increase proportionally with relative offspring mass, while fecundity decreases in proportion with offspring mass. The overall reproductive success is generally independent of offspring mass.
Article
Plant Sciences
Stephan Kambach, Richard Condit, Salomon Aguilar, Helge Bruelheide, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin, Chia-Hao Chang-Yang, Yu-Yun Chen, George Chuyong, Stuart J. Davies, Sisira Ediriweera, Corneille E. N. Ewango, Edwino S. Fernando, Nimal Gunatilleke, Savitri Gunatilleke, Stephen P. Hubbell, Akira Itoh, David Kenfack, Somboon Kiratiprayoon, Yi-Ching Lin, Jean-Remy Makana, Mohizah Bt. Mohamad, Nantachai Pongpattananurak, Rolando Perez, Lillian Jennifer V. Rodriguez, I-Fang Sun, Sylvester Tan, Duncan Thomas, Jill Thompson, Maria Uriarte, Renato Valencia, Christian Wirth, S. Joseph Wright, Shu-Hui Wu, Takuo Yamakura, Tze Leong Yao, Jess Zimmerman, Nadja Rueger
Summary: Organisms in tropical forests must balance their allocation to growth, survival, and recruitment. Fast growth and high survival are common life-history strategies in these forests. Additionally, there is a trade-off between tree stature and recruitment success. These trade-offs structure tropical forests worldwide, with some variation between forests in different regions.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Ryan A. Martin, Ruediger Riesch, Martin Plath, Naif A. Al Hanoosh, Torsten Wronski
Summary: Reproductive traits are crucial for the fitness of organisms. In this study, we investigated the reproductive biology of Arabian gazelles based on breeding data collected over 16 years. The results showed that offspring survival was influenced by birth weight, with heavier offspring having higher survival rates. We also found significant narrow-sense heritability in birth weight and different effects of maternal and paternal influences on offspring survival.
Article
Ecology
Felicie Dhellemmes, Jean-Sebastien Finger, Matthew J. Smukall, Samuel H. Gruber, Tristan L. Guttridge, Kate L. Laskowski, Jens Krause
Summary: The study revealed that the association between personality and life history is favored in some ecological contexts but not in others. In a predator-poor environment, more explorative sharks in semi-captivity were found to take more risks in the wild and grew faster. While in a predator-rich environment, despite selection for fast growth, no link was found between exploration personality and the growth-mortality trade-off.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biology
Samsad Razzaque, Robert W. Heckman, Thomas E. Juenger
Summary: Seed mass is an important ecological trait that varies among different ecotypes. However, the role of seed mass in local adaptation is not clear due to limited studies on its impacts on adult life-history traits. This study examined the relationship between seed mass, seedling and reproductive traits in Panicum hallii, which has two distinct ecotypes adapted to different habitats. The results showed that seed mass differed significantly among P. hallii genotypes and was correlated with various seedling and reproductive traits. Field experiments demonstrated that selection favored large seeds in upland habitat and small seeds in lowland habitat, supporting the concept of local adaptation. These findings highlight the central role of seed mass in ecotypic differences and its importance in seedling and adult recruitment, providing insights into ecotype formation.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Ana Angela Romero-Haro, Jennifer Morger, Mark F. Haussmann, Barbara Tschirren
Summary: Artificial selection experiments on Japanese quail reveal that reproductive strategies can affect telomere length at different life stages, with adult birds from high-investment lines showing significantly shorter telomeres, indicating accelerated telomere attrition once they become reproductively active.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2022)
Article
Biology
Mia Lybkaer Kronborg Nielsen, Samuel Ellis, Michael N. Weiss, Jared R. Towers, Thomas Doniol-Valcroze, Daniel W. Franks, Michael A. Cant, Graeme M. Ellis, John K. B. Ford, Mark Malleson, Gary J. Sutton, Tasli J. H. Shaw, Kenneth C. Balcomb III, David K. Ellifrit, Darren P. Croft
Summary: Age-related changes in kinship dynamics can shape the evolution of life history and social behavior. Human and toothed whale females show increased relatedness with age, leading to a prolonged post-reproductive lifespan due to reproductive conflict costs and kin helping benefits. Killer whales provide a valuable system to explore these dynamics, and our study focuses on Bigg's killer whales. We find male philopatry and female-biased budding dispersal patterns, allowing for late-life helping between mothers and adult sons and partially mitigating mother-daughter reproductive conflict.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Roosa A. E. Laitinen, Zoran Nikoloski
Summary: Trade-offs between traits in plants are important for their survival and are influenced by the environment and physicochemical laws. However, there are still gaps and differences in defining and measuring trade-offs, as well as understanding their genetic architecture. This review classifies existing definitions of trade-offs and compares quantification methods based on different correlations. It also highlights the genetic mechanisms underlying trade-offs and suggests the use of natural variability in studying them. The review offers a perspective for future research on plant trade-offs and their application in crop breeding.
Article
Ecology
Carlos A. Aguilar-Trigueros, Franz-Sebastian Krah, William K. Cornwell, Amy E. Zanne, Nerea Abrego, Ian C. Anderson, Carrie J. Andrew, Petr Baldrian, Claus Baessler, Andrew Bissett, V. Bala Chaudhary, Baodong Chen, Yongliang Chen, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Coline Deveautour, Eleonora Egidi, Habacuc Flores-Moreno, Jacob Golan, Jacob Heilmann-Clausen, Stefan Hempel, Yajun Hu, Havard Kauserud, Stephanie N. Kivlin, Petr Kohout, Daniel R. Lammel, Fernando T. Maestre, Anne Pringle, Jenna Purhonen, Brajesh K. Singh, Stavros D. Veresoglou, Tomas Vetrovsky, Haiyang Zhang, Matthias C. Rillig, Jeff R. Powell
Summary: Despite the ubiquity of host-fungal symbiotic interactions, the effects of symbiosis on the ecology and evolution of fungal spores involved in dispersal and colonization have been neglected. Through a spore morphology database, we found that symbiotic status correlated with changes in spore size, but this effect varied among different fungal phyla. Symbiosis explained more variation in spore size distribution than climatic variables, and spores of plant-associated fungi have more restricted dispersal potential compared to free-living fungi. Our study advances life-history theory by highlighting the role of symbiosis in shaping reproductive and dispersal strategies among living organisms.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Arkadiusz Frohlich, Dorota Kotowska, Rafal Martyka, Matthew R. E. Symonds
Summary: Animals in warm climates tend to decrease in body size and elongate appendages. This study shows that the relative length of unfeathered appendages varies with temperature depending on body size. Body size, beak length, and tarsus length interact to predict the species' environmental temperature. These findings suggest that body size and shape are products of thermoregulatory adaptations.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Chen-Hao Hsu, Oliver Posegga, Kai Fischbach, Henriette Engelhardt
Summary: The study investigates the relationship between fertility and longevity in Europe from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, finding that higher fertility has a negative effect on longevity but this effect has reduced over time. The results emphasize that changes in survival conditions over historical periods may moderate the negative impact of human fertility on longevity.
Article
Parasitology
A. A. Davis, J. T. Vannatta, S. O. Gutierrez, D. J. Minchella
Summary: Infected snails exhibit fecundity compensation by increasing the number of eggs laid and the overall probability of laying eggs compared to uninfected snails. Parental infection status does not have a significant impact on hatching or offspring survival, and there is no apparent trade-off between quantity and quality. Offspring from later reproductive bouts show higher hatching success rates.
JOURNAL OF HELMINTHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Alexander Blake, Tim Coulson
Summary: Food plays a role in ecology and evolution, but the direct impacts of total food amount on within-species life history evolution are not well understood. Using an integral projection model, researchers examined the effects of high and low food regimes on the life history trade-offs, trait dynamics, and population dynamics of a marine copepod. They found that food regime had a slight but significant effect on life histories, with low-food lineages exhibiting slower life history traits while high-food lineages displayed faster traits. Despite these differences, population ecology and fitness were similar in high- and low-food lineages as anticipated by per-capita rather than total food effects.
Article
Ecology
David M. Anderson, James F. Gillooly
POPULATION ECOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Ecology
David M. Anderson, James F. Gillooly
Summary: Different species have varying strategies in allocating resources to offspring size and number, with tradeoffs between offspring survivorship and fecundity limiting reproductive success. Research shows that survivorship tends to increase proportionally with relative offspring mass, while fecundity decreases in proportion with offspring mass. The overall reproductive success is generally independent of offspring mass.
Article
Ecology
Rita L. Grunberg, David M. Anderson
Summary: Parasites are found to have a relationship with ecosystem energetics, with parasite biomass reflecting the flow of energy from hosts to parasites. The energy use by parasite community is influenced by host metabolic rate, but the findings do not align with predictions based on metabolic theory. The proportion of host energy used by parasites declines with host metabolic rate. Variation in parasite energy use among ecosystems can be revealed by directly examining energy flux, rather than examining biomass differences.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2022)