Study Questions - Evolution of Life Histories
Readings - chapter 12
1) List three components of fitness, and explain how, with limited energy, there is a necessary trade-off between maximizing one at the expense of another.
2) Given a limited energy budget, describe the trade-off between reproduction and survival.
3) What trade-off is possible with the allocation of energy within the reproductive energy budget?
4) List three empirical patterns that are consistent with these trade-offs.
5) How can external factors that affect survival, like predation, influence these allocation strategies?
5) All other things being equal, why does selection favor early reproduction?
6) Given #5, when is a perennial lifecyle adaptive?
7) Contrast five characteristics of r and K selected species.
8) How does the predictability of the environment select for reproductive schedules?
9) How does energetic investment affect sex determination in plants and animals?
10) How can social context affect sex determination? How is this adaptive?
11) The Trivers - Willard hypothesis is that females should invest in males when healthy but in females when stressed. How does selective abortion in red Deer complement this pattern, and why is it adaptive?
12) Males and females have different strategies to achieve reproductive success, even at a gene-activation level. Explain the pattern of male and female imprinting of the igf2 and igf2-inhibitor genes in this context,