BIOLOGY 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Kelp Forest, Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Natural Disaster
Document Summary
Traits that affect organisms schedule of reproduction and survival. Semelparity: semel=once parity=to beget, one shot reproduction. Ex: agave- grows for years in arid climates & poor soils. Once fully grown, when there is an unusually wet year it produces one huge inflorescence and many seeds, before dying. Ex: loggerhead turtles- produces 4 clutches of eggs/year (~300 eggs), 2-3 years later she lays again after she has built up her energy reserves, one female can lay eggs for 30 years after she reaches reproductive maturity. In iteroparity females tend to produce fewer but larger offspring and the mothers provide more resources (eg. yolk in turtle eggs) Iteroparity is favored in more dependable environments where adults are more likely to survive long enough to breed again and where competition for resources may be intense. Thus fewer but well provisioned offspring should have an improved chance of surviving to reproductive maturity.
