scholarly journals Towards a general life-history model of the superorganism: predicting the survival, growth and reproduction of ant societies

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1059-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Z. Shik ◽  
Chen Hou ◽  
Adam Kay ◽  
Michael Kaspari ◽  
James F. Gillooly
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
The Body ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Model Predictions ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Growth And Reproduction ◽  
Colony Level

Social insect societies dominate many terrestrial ecosystems across the planet. Colony members cooperate to capture and use resources to maximize survival and reproduction. Yet, when compared with solitary organisms, we understand relatively little about the factors responsible for differences in the rates of survival, growth and reproduction among colonies. To explain these differences, we present a mathematical model that predicts these three rates for ant colonies based on the body sizes and metabolic rates of colony members. Specifically, the model predicts that smaller colonies tend to use more energy per gram of biomass, live faster and die younger. Model predictions are supported with data from whole colonies for a diversity of species, with much of the variation in colony-level life history explained based on physiological traits of individual ants. The theory and data presented here provide a first step towards a more general theory of colony life history that applies across species and environments.

Body size and segmentation patterns in free-living and parasitic polychaetes

2001 ◽  
Vol 79 (5) ◽  
pp. 741-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Poulin
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Body Length ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
The Body ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Body Segments ◽  
The Family ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Number Of Segments ◽  
Over Time

Taxa that include both free-living and parasitic lineages present opportunities to examine if and how the life-history traits of parasitic organisms have diverged from those of their free-living relatives. In a comparative analysis the body sizes and numbers of body segments of parasitic polychaetes of the family Oenonidae were compared with those of free-living polychaetes from closely related families. There was no difference in body length between oenonids and free-living polychaetes. However, the parasitic oenonids attain, on average, a much higher number of body segments than their free-living counterparts. The number of segments per unit body length is also much higher in oenonids than in related free-living polychaetes. This suggests that new segments are produced at a higher rate or for longer periods in oenonids than in free-living polychaetes, in which the proliferation of new segments slows down over time to allow for the segments to grow in size. Given that each segment can produce gametes late in the life of the worm, the proliferation of segments in oenonids may be an adaptation to their parasitic life-style.

scholarly journals Toward a metabolic theory of life history

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Robert Burger ◽  
Chen Hou ◽  
James H. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Biomass Energy ◽  
Metabolic Energy ◽  
Mass Energy ◽  
Metabolic Theory ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Growth Evolution ◽  
Growth And Reproduction

SignificanceData and theory reveal how organisms allocate metabolic energy to components of the life history that determine fitness. In each generation animals take up biomass energy from the environment and expended it on survival, growth, and reproduction. Life histories of animals exhibit enormous diversity – from large fish and invertebrates that produce literally millions of tiny eggs and suffer enormous mortality, to mammals and birds that produce a few large offspring with much lower mortality. Yet, underlying this enormous diversity, are general life history rules and tradeoffs due to universal biophysical constraints on the channels of selection. These rules are characterized by general equations that underscore the unity of life.Abstract The life histories of animals reflect the allocation of metabolic energy to traits that determine fitness and the pace of living. Here we extend metabolic theories to address how demography and mass-energy balance constrain allocation of biomass to survival, growth, and reproduction over a life cycle of one generation. We first present data for diverse kinds of animals showing empirical patterns of variation in life history traits. These patterns are predicted by new theory that highlights the effects of two fundamental biophysical constraints: demography on number and mortality of offspring; and mass-energy balance on allocation of energy to growth and reproduction. These constraints impose two fundamental tradeoffs on allocation of assimilated biomass energy to production: between number and size of offspring, and between parental investment and offspring growth. Evolution has generated enormous diversity of body sizes, morphologies, physiologies, ecologies, and life histories across the millions of animal, plant and microbe species, yet simple rules specified by general equations highlight the underlying unity of life.

scholarly journals Toward a metabolic theory of life history

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (52) ◽  
pp. 26653-26661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Robert Burger ◽  
Chen Hou ◽  
James H. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Biomass Energy ◽  
Metabolic Energy ◽  
Mass Energy ◽  
Metabolic Theory ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Growth And Reproduction

The life histories of animals reflect the allocation of metabolic energy to traits that determine fitness and the pace of living. Here, we extend metabolic theories to address how demography and mass–energy balance constrain allocation of biomass to survival, growth, and reproduction over a life cycle of one generation. We first present data for diverse kinds of animals showing empirical patterns of variation in life-history traits. These patterns are predicted by theory that highlights the effects of 2 fundamental biophysical constraints: demography on number and mortality of offspring; and mass–energy balance on allocation of energy to growth and reproduction. These constraints impose 2 fundamental trade-offs on allocation of assimilated biomass energy to production: between number and size of offspring, and between parental investment and offspring growth. Evolution has generated enormous diversity of body sizes, morphologies, physiologies, ecologies, and life histories across the millions of animal, plant, and microbe species, yet simple rules specified by general equations highlight the underlying unity of life.

scholarly journals A metabolic life table exemplified by sockeye salmon

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Burger ◽  
Chen Hou ◽  
Charles A.S Hall ◽  
James H. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Table ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Energy Budget ◽  
Sockeye Salmon ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
List Type ◽  
Ecosystem Impacts ◽  
Survival And Reproduction

AbstractA metabolic life table (MLT) is a combination of energy budget and life table that quantifies metabolism and life history over an entire life cycle. It provides a conceptual framework for integrating data on physiology, demography and ecology that are usually the subject of discipline- and taxon-specific studies.Our MLT for sockeye salmon revives John Brett’s classic data on metabolism, growth, survival and reproduction to provide a synthetic analysis of metabolic performance and its life history consequences.The MLT quantifies the energy budget of an average female over her life cycle. The early stages in fresh water have low rates of growth and mortality. Then juveniles enter the ocean, feed voraciously, grow rapidly, and accumulate a store of biomass; More than 98% of the total lifetime assimilation and growth occurs in the ocean. Maturing adults stop feeding, return to fresh water, expend stored body energy to fuel migration and reproduction, and leave a clutch of eggs and a depleted carcass.The MLT also quantifies the energetic contribution of salmon to freshwater and marine ecosystems. Salmon are very efficient: of the food energy in their zooplankton prey, 47% is expended on respiration to fuel activity, 23% is allocated to growth and reproduction to produce biomass, and 30% is excreted in feces. Although 96% of lifetime biomass production occurs in the ocean, about 29% is transported into fresh water in the bodies of maturing adults, where their carcasses and gametes provide an important “marine subsidy” to the energy and nutrient budgets of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems.The MLT highlights some features of the salmon metabolism – variation in rates of assimilation, respiration and production with body size and temperature – that are qualitatively similar to other ectotherms and predictions of metabolic theory. But because of the unusual physiology, life history, ecosystem impacts and socio-economic importance of wild-caught salmon, reanalyzing Brett’s data in the context of a MLT has additional broad applications for basic and applied ecology.

scholarly journals The bacterial endosymbiontWolbachiaincreases reproductive investment and accelerates the life cycle of ant colonies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohini Singh ◽  
Timothy A. Linksvayer
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life History Strategy ◽  
Reproductive Investment ◽  
Ant Colonies ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Young Life ◽  
Colony Level

AbstractWolbachiais a widespread group of maternally-transmitted endosymbiotic bacteria that often manipulates the reproductive strategy and life history of its solitary hosts to enhance its own transmission.Wolbachiaalso commonly infects eusocial insects such as ants, although the effects of infection on social organisms remain largely unknown. We tested the effects of infection on colony-level reproduction and life history traits in the invasive pharaoh ant,Monomorium pharaonis. First we compared the reproductive investment of infected and uninfected colonies with queens of three discrete ages, and we found that infected colonies had increased reproductive investment. Next, we compared the long-term growth and reproduction of infected and uninfected colonies across their life cycle, and we found that infected colonies had increased colony-level growth and early colony reproduction. These colony-level effects ofWolbachiainfection seem to result because of a ‘live fast, die young’ life history strategy of infected queens. Such accelerated colony life cycle is likely beneficial for both the host and the symbiont and may have contributed to success of the highly invasive pharaoh ant.

Plasticity of nutrient accumulation patterns in diapausing fall webworm pupae

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Lvquan Zhao ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Ying Qiu ◽  
Alex S. Torson
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Diapause Induction ◽  
Energy Reserve ◽  
Short Photoperiod ◽  
Induction Phase ◽  
Energy Reserves ◽  
Hyphantria Cunea ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Fall Webworm ◽  
Diapause Incidence

Abstract The accumulation of nutrients during diapause preparation is crucial because any lack of nutrition will reduce the likelihood of insects completing diapause, thereby decreasing their chances of survival and reproduction. The fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea, diapause as overwintering pupae and their diapause incidence and diapause intensity are regulated by the photoperiod. In this study, we test the hypothesis that photoperiod influences energy reserve accumulation during diapause preparation in fall webworm. We found that the body size and mass, lipid and carbohydrate content of pupae with a short photoperiod during the diapause induction phase were significantly greater than those of pupae with a relatively short photoperiod, and the efficiency of converting digested food and ingested food into body matter was greater in the short-photoperiod diapause-destined larvae than the relatively short-photoperiod diapause-destined larvae. We also observed higher lipase and amylase activities in short-photoperiod diapause-destined larvae relative to the counterparts. However, no obvious difference was found in protein and protease in the pupae with a short photoperiod during the diapause induction phase and short-photoperiod diapause-destined larvae compared with the counterparts. Therefore, we conclude that the energy reserve patterns of diapausing fall webworm pupae are plastic and that short-photoperiod diapause-destined larvae increase their energy reserves by improving their feeding efficiency and increase their lipid and carbohydrate stores by increasing the lipase and amylase activities in the midgut.

Growth and reproduction of the red alga Rhodomela larix

1986 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 1499-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla D'Antonio
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Red Alga ◽  
Oregon Coast ◽  
Perennial Plants ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lower Site ◽  
Intertidal Site ◽  
Observation Period ◽  
Growth And Reproduction

Components of the growth and life history of the red alga Rhodomela larix (Turner) C. Agardh were studied during an 18-month period at a high intertidal and a low intertidal site on the central Oregon coast. Growth was measured by following (i) individually marked upright axes, (ii) clumps of axes thought to represent individual plants, and (iii) large patches of R. larix. Variation in size and growth was common among axes, and portions of some axes were clearly perennial. Plants grew most rapidly in the spring and summer (up to 1.2 mm/day) with a large amount of variation occurring between and within zones and among seasons. Overall, plants at the higher site were shorter and had fewer branches during most of the year than plants at the lower site. Gametophytes were more common in the higher site, while tetrasporophytes predominated at both sites. Reproductive axes were present throughout the observation period, although little recruitment of sexual propagules was seen, implying that populations may be maintained by vegetative perennation of individual plants.

scholarly journals The impact of large terrestrial carnivores on Pleistocene ecosystems

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 862-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaire Van Valkenburgh ◽  
Matthew W. Hayward ◽  
William J. Ripple ◽  
Carlo Meloro ◽  
V. Louise Roth
Keyword(s):  
Prey Size ◽  
Habitat Degradation ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Growth Data ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ground Sloths

Large mammalian terrestrial herbivores, such as elephants, have dramatic effects on the ecosystems they inhabit and at high population densities their environmental impacts can be devastating. Pleistocene terrestrial ecosystems included a much greater diversity of megaherbivores (e.g., mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths) and thus a greater potential for widespread habitat degradation if population sizes were not limited. Nevertheless, based on modern observations, it is generally believed that populations of megaherbivores (>800 kg) are largely immune to the effects of predation and this perception has been extended into the Pleistocene. However, as shown here, the species richness of big carnivores was greater in the Pleistocene and many of them were significantly larger than their modern counterparts. Fossil evidence suggests that interspecific competition among carnivores was relatively intense and reveals that some individuals specialized in consuming megaherbivores. To estimate the potential impact of Pleistocene large carnivores, we use both historic and modern data on predator–prey body mass relationships to predict size ranges of their typical and maximum prey when hunting as individuals and in groups. These prey size ranges are then compared with estimates of juvenile and subadult proboscidean body sizes derived from extant elephant growth data. Young proboscideans at their most vulnerable age fall within the predicted prey size ranges of many of the Pleistocene carnivores. Predation on juveniles can have a greater impact on megaherbivores because of their long interbirth intervals, and consequently, we argue that Pleistocene carnivores had the capacity to, and likely did, limit megaherbivore population sizes.

Evidence for multiple paternity in two species of Orconectes crayfish

2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (11) ◽  
pp. 985-988 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.F. Kahrl ◽  
R.H. Laushman ◽  
A.J. Roles
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Life History ◽  
Multiple Mating ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Multiple Paternity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Freshwater Crayfish ◽  
Decapod Crustaceans ◽  
Freshwater Habitats ◽  
Crayfish Species

Multiple mating is expected to be common in organisms that produce large clutches as a mechanism by which sexual reproduction can enrich genetic variation. For freshwater crayfish, observation of multiple mating suggests the potential for high rates of multiple paternity, but genetic confirmation is largely lacking from natural populations. We studied paternity within wild-caught broods of two crayfish species in the genus Orconectes (Sanborn’s crayfish (Orconectes sanbornii (Faxon, 1884)) and the Allegheny crayfish (Orconectes obscurus (Hagen, 1870))). Although females have been observed mating with multiple males, this is the first genetic confirmation of multiple paternity in broods of these two species. Berried females were collected in the field and maintained in aquaria until their eggs hatched. We amplified and genotyped extracted DNA from maternal and hatchling tissue for several microsatellite loci. For both species, paternity reconstruction (GERUD 2.0) yielded 2–3 sires per brood and no single paternity clutches. We discuss these results from natural populations in light of the body of work on reproductive ecology of decapod crustaceans and in the context of changes in life history following the transition from marine to freshwater habitats.

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