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Life History exam
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  • Life History
    The strategic allocation of limited energy, resources, and time impacting traits like survivorship, fecundity, and growth.
  • Survivorship
    The proportion of individuals in a population surviving to a given age.
  • Fecundity
    The capacity or ability for organisms to reproduce, often expressed as the average number of viable offspring produced per reproductive event or lifetime.
  • What is a key trade-off in life history?
    The trade-off between high survivorship and low fecundity.
  • Semelparity
    A reproductive strategy involving one massive reproductive event, after which the organism typically dies.
  • Iteroparity
    A reproductive strategy involving multiple reproductive events throughout an organism's lifetime.
  • What is an example of an organism with high fecundity and low survivorship?
    Fruit flies, which can produce between 400-900 offspring but have a short lifespan.
  • What is an example of an organism with high survivorship and low fecundity?
    African bush elephants, which produce about 4-6 offspring but have a long lifespan.
  • What does the term 'semel' in semelparity mean?
    Once.
  • What does the term 'parity' in semelparity mean?
    To produce.
  • What does the term 'itero' in iteroparity mean?
    To repeat.
  • What is seasonal iteroparity?
    Reproductive events that occur only during distinct breeding seasons.
  • What is continuous iteroparity?
    Reproductive events that can occur at any time once the organism becomes reproductively capable.
  • What is an example of an organism with semelparity?
    The century plant, which has one massive reproductive event and then dies.
  • What is an example of an organism with seasonal iteroparity?
    The American Robin, which reproduces during distinct breeding seasons.
  • What is an example of an organism with continuous iteroparity?
    The red howler monkey, which can reproduce at any time once reproductively capable.
  • What is the relationship between high survivorship and lifespan?
    High survivorship is often, but not always, associated with having longer lifespans.
  • What is the relationship between low survivorship and lifespan?
    Low survivorship is often, but not always, correlated with having a shorter lifespan.
  • What does life history encompass?
    Any individual trait, strategy, or trade-off impacting an organism's survivorship, fecundity, or developmental growth.
  • What is the opposite of survivorship?
    Mortality, which is the proportion of individuals dying at a given age.
  • What is the lifespan of a fruit fly?
    About a month.
  • What is the lifespan of an African bush elephant?
    About 70 years.
  • What does the graph of fecundity vs. survivorship show?
    A trade-off where most organisms fall on a trend line between high fecundity and low survivorship or vice versa.
  • What is a fitness trade-off?
    A compromise between two traits that cannot be optimized simultaneously, such as between survivorship and fecundity.
  • What is the main focus of life history studies?
    Traits like survivorship, fecundity, and growth.
  • What is the reproductive capacity of a single female fruit fly?
    Between 400-900 offspring.
  • How many offspring do African bush elephants typically produce?
    About 4-6 offspring throughout their entire lifespans.
  • What is the significance of the term 'life history'?
    It can be thought of as the organism's entire life story, encompassing all traits and strategies impacting its survival and reproduction.