EEB 3408W Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Commensalism, Natural Selection, Photosynthesis

• School: UMN
• Department: Ecology, Evolution, and Behav
• Course: EEB 3408W
• Professor: Cavender- Bares, Jeannine

Document Summary

Choice 1: make lots of babies and leave those to reproduce. Natural selection favors one end of the spectrum or the other depending on the environment. Reduced age of first reproduction (sooner the higher the r) Increase in the number of litters (number of years of seed production) Plants have a limited amount of resources to spend on growth, survival or reproduction. There is a cost for females to produce offspring. Non reproductive females have lower mortality rates. Lactating female do not have large fat reserves causing higher over the winter mortality. Beech trees will have mast" years where they produce lots of seed and therefore grow less. When n is very high, there is a competitive environment. Can fit more individuals if they are very efficient. Leaf traits associated with resource acquisition fall along a fast - slow continuum or leaf economic spectrum. Fast strategy - fall at first stress but keep photosynthesizing.