BIO205H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Common Kestrel, Semelparity And Iteroparity
Document Summary
We can see diversity in plants and animals. A life history is the schedule of an organism"s growth, development, reproduction and survival. Basically a life cycle - every one of the species individuals goes through that life order of events. Fecundity: ability to produce offspring or fertility. The higher the reproductive age, the more life expectancy. The smaller the life expectancy, the more number of offspring. The smaller animals have shorter life expectancy vs larger animals with higher life expectancy. High fecundity and high rate of adult survival. There is no process that we know of that can preserve species. Reproduction requires energy - one of the factors that influence these life histories is called tradeoff. A resource that is used for one aspect of life history cannot be also used for another. Maximum fitness cannot be achieved by maximizing all life history traits. Selection favors individuals that choose best trade-offs. Ex. plants trade off offspring size with offspring number.
