Elevational trends in life histories: revising the pace-of-life framework

While among-individual variation in behaviour, or personality, is common across taxa, its mechanistic underpinnings are poorly understood. The Pace of Life syndrome (POLS) provides one possible explanation for maintenance of personality differences. POLS predicts that metabolic differences will covary with behavioural variation, with high metabolism associated with risk prone behaviour and ‘faster’ life histories (e.g., high growth, early maturation). We used a repeated measures approach, assaying metabolic traits (rate and scope), behaviour and growth to test these predictions in the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata. We found that while individuals varied significantly in their behaviour and growth rate, more risk prone individuals did not grow significantly faster. Furthermore, after accounting for body size there was no support for among-individual variation in metabolic traits. Thus, while personality differences are clearly present in this population, they do not covary with metabolism and the POLS framework is not supported.

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The metabolic pace of life histories across fishes

10.1101/2020.11.16.385559 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Serena Wong ◽

Jennifer S. Bigman ◽

Nicholas K. Dulvy

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Metabolic Rate ◽

Growth Performance ◽

Body Mass ◽

Life Histories ◽

Life History Traits ◽

Generation Length ◽

Pace Of Life ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Maximum Body

AbstractAll life acquires energy through metabolic processes and that energy is subsequently allocated to life-sustaining functions such as survival, growth, and reproduction. Thus, it has long been assumed that metabolic rate is related to the life history of an organism. Indeed, metabolic rate is commonly believed to set the pace of life by determining where an organism is situated along a fast-slow life history continuum. However, empirical evidence of a relationship between metabolic rate and life histories is lacking, especially for ectothermic organisms. Here, we ask whether three life history traits – maximum body mass, generation length, and growth performance – explain variation in resting metabolic rate (RMR) across fishes. We found that growth performance, which accounts for the trade-off between growth rate and maximum body size, explained variation in RMR, yet maximum body mass and generation length did not. Our results suggest that measures of life history that encompass trade-offs between life history traits, rather than traits in isolation, explain variation in RMR across fishes. Ultimately, understanding the relationship between metabolic rate and life history is crucial to metabolic ecology and has the potential to improve prediction of the ecological risk of data-poor species.

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The metabolic pace of life histories across fishes

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2021.0910 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 288 (1953) ◽

pp. 20210910

Author(s):

Serena Wong ◽

Jennifer S. Bigman ◽

Nicholas K. Dulvy

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Metabolic Rate ◽

Growth Performance ◽

Body Mass ◽

Life Histories ◽

Life History Traits ◽

Generation Length ◽

Pace Of Life ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Maximum Body

All life acquires energy through metabolic processes and that energy is subsequently allocated to life-sustaining functions such as survival, growth and reproduction. Thus, it has long been assumed that metabolic rate is related to the life history of an organism. Indeed, metabolic rate is commonly believed to set the pace of life by determining where an organism is situated along a fast–slow life-history continuum. However, empirical evidence of a direct interspecific relationship between metabolic rate and life histories is lacking, especially for ectothermic organisms. Here, we ask whether three life-history traits—maximum body mass, generation length and growth performance—explain variation in resting metabolic rate (RMR) across fishes. We found that growth performance, which accounts for the trade-off between growth rate and maximum body size, explained variation in RMR, yet maximum body mass and generation length did not. Our results suggest that measures of life history that encompass trade-offs between life-history traits, rather than traits in isolation, explain variation in RMR across fishes. Ultimately, understanding the relationship between metabolic rate and life history is crucial to metabolic ecology and has the potential to improve prediction of the ecological risk of data-poor species.

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Is degree of sociality associated with reproductive senescence? A comparative analysis across birds and mammals

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2019.0744 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 376 (1823) ◽

pp. 20190744

Author(s):

Csongor I. Vágási ◽

Orsolya Vincze ◽

Jean-François Lemaître ◽

Péter L. Pap ◽

Victor Ronget ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Histories ◽

Mammal Species ◽

Similar Frequency ◽

Reproductive Senescence ◽

Social Traits ◽

Pace Of Life ◽

In The Wild ◽

Species Specific ◽

Direct Outcome ◽

Specific Degree

Our understanding on how widespread reproductive senescence is in the wild and how the onset and rate of reproductive senescence vary among species in relation to life histories and lifestyles is currently limited. More specifically, whether the species-specific degree of sociality is linked to the occurrence, onset and rate of reproductive senescence remains unknown. Here, we investigate these questions using phylogenetic comparative analyses across 36 bird and 101 mammal species encompassing a wide array of life histories, lifestyles and social traits. We found that female reproductive senescence: (i) is widespread and occurs with similar frequency (about two-thirds) in birds and mammals; (ii) occurs later in life and is slower in birds than in similar-sized mammals; (iii) occurs later in life and is slower with an increasingly slower pace of life in both vertebrate classes; and (iv) is only weakly associated, if any, with the degree of sociality in both classes after accounting for the effect of body size and pace of life. However, when removing the effect of species differences in pace of life, a higher degree of sociality was associated with later and weaker reproductive senescence in females, which suggests that the degree of sociality is either indirectly related to reproductive senescence via the pace of life or simply a direct outcome of the pace of life. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?’

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Telomeres positively correlate with pace-of-life and elongate with age in a wild mammal

10.22541/au.163421567.77547120/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mathilde Tissier ◽

Patrick Bergeron ◽

Dany Garant ◽

Sandrine Zahn ◽

Francois Criscuolo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Resource Allocation ◽

Life History ◽

Life Histories ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Trade Off ◽

Pace Of Life ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Proactive Behaviour ◽

Anti Cancer ◽

Fast Pace

Understanding ageing and the diversity of life histories is a cornerstone in biology. Telomeres, the protecting caps of chromosomes, are thought to be involved in ageing, cancer risks and to modulate life-history strategies. They shorten with cell division and age in somatic tissues of most species, possibly limiting lifespan. The resource allocation trade-off hypothesis predicts that short telomeres have thus co-evolved with early reproduction, proactive behaviour and reduced lifespan, i.e. a fast Pace-of-Life Syndrome (POLS). Conversely, since short telomeres may also reduce the risks of cancer, the anti-cancer hypothesis advances that they should be associated with slow POLS. Conclusion on which hypothesis best supports the role of telomeres as mediators of life-history strategies is hampered by a lack of study on wild short-lived vertebrates, apart from birds. Using seven years of data on wild Eastern chipmunks Tamias striatus, we highlighted that telomeres elongate with age and do not limit lifespan in this species. Furthermore, short telomeres correlated with a slow POLS in a sex-specific way. Females with short telomeres had a delayed age at first breeding and a lower fecundity rate than females with long telomeres, whereas those differences were not recorded in males. Our findings support most predictions adapted from the anti-cancer hypothesis, but none of those made under the resource allocation trade-off hypothesis. Results are in line with an increasing body of evidence suggesting that resource allocation trade-offs alone cannot explaining the diversity of telomere length in adult somatic cells and life-histories observed across the tree of life.

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Pace of life, predators and parasites: predator-induced life-history evolution in Trinidadian guppies predicts decrease in parasite tolerance

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2015.0806 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. 20150806 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

J. F. Stephenson ◽

C. van Oosterhout ◽

J. Cable

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Life Histories ◽

Large Scale ◽

Life History Theory ◽

Poecilia Reticulata ◽

Life History Evolution ◽

Predation Pressure ◽

Pace Of Life ◽

Evolutionary Response ◽

Investment In Reproduction

A common evolutionary response to predation pressure is increased investment in reproduction, ultimately resulting in a fast life history. Theory and comparative studies suggest that short-lived organisms invest less in defence against parasites than those that are longer lived (the pace of life hypothesis). Combining these tenets of evolutionary theory leads to the specific, untested prediction that within species, populations experiencing higher predation pressure invest less in defence against parasites. The Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata , presents an excellent opportunity to test this prediction: guppy populations in lower courses of rivers experience higher predation pressure, and as a consequence have evolved faster life histories, than those in upper courses. Data from a large-scale field survey showed that fish infected with Gyrodactylus parasites were of a lower body condition (quantified using the scaled mass index) than uninfected fish, but only in lower course populations. Although the evidence we present is correlational, it suggests that upper course guppies sustain lower fitness costs of infection, i.e. are more tolerant, than lower course guppies. The data are therefore consistent with the pace of life hypothesis of parasite defence allocation, and suggest that life-history traits mediate the indirect effect of predators on the parasites of their prey.

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Latitudinal but not elevational variation in blood glucose level is linked to life history across passerine birds

10.32942/osf.io/b793g ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Oldřich Tomášek ◽

Lukáš Bobek ◽

Tereza Kauzálová ◽

Ondřej Kauzál ◽

Marie Adámková ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Blood Glucose ◽

Glucose Level ◽

Life Histories ◽

Blood Glucose Concentration ◽

Life History Variation ◽

Glucose Levels ◽

Pace Of Life ◽

Lower Baseline ◽

Elevational Variation

Macrophysiological research is vital to our understanding of mechanisms underpinning global life history variation and adaptation under diverse environments. Birds represent an important model taxon in this regard, yet our knowledge is limited to only a few physiological traits, mostly studied in temperate and Neotropical species. Here, we examined latitudinal and elevational variation in an emerging biomarker of physiological pace of life, blood glucose concentration, collected from 61 European temperate and 99 Afrotropical passerine species. Our data suggest that the slow physiological pace-of-life syndrome, indicated by lower baseline glucose level and stronger stress response, evolves convergently in lowland tropical birds across continents and is shaped by their low fecundity. In contrast, elevational variation in blood glucose levels implied a unique montane pace-of-life syndrome combining slow-paced life histories with fast-paced physiology. The observed patterns suggest an unequal importance of life history in shaping physiological adaptations associated with latitude and elevation.

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Is degree of sociality associated with reproductive senescence? A comparative analysis across birds and mammals

10.1101/2020.10.29.360636 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Csongor I. Vágási ◽

Orsolya Vincze ◽

Jean-François Lemaître ◽

Péter L. Pap ◽

Victor Ronget ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Histories ◽

Mammal Species ◽

Similar Frequency ◽

Reproductive Senescence ◽

Social Traits ◽

Pace Of Life ◽

Subject Areas ◽

Species Specific ◽

Direct Outcome ◽

Specific Degree

Our understanding on how widespread reproductive senescence is in the w ild and how the onset and rate of reproductive senescence vary among species in relation to life histories and lifestyles is currently limited. More specifically, whether the species-specific degree of sociality is linked to the occurrence, onset and rate of reproductive senescence remains unknown. Here, we investigate these questions using phylogenetic comparative analyses across 36 bird and 101 mammal species encompassing a wide array of life histories, lifestyles and social traits. We found that female reproductive senescence (1) is widespread and occurs with similar frequency (about two thirds) in birds and mammals; (2) occurs later in life and is slower in birds than in similar-sized mammals; (3) occurs later in life and is lower with an increasingly slower pace of life in both vertebrate classes; and (4) is only weakly associated, if any, with the degree of sociality in both classes after accounting for the effect of body size and pace of life. However, when removing the effect of species differences in pace of life, a higher degree of sociality was associated with later and weaker reproductive senescence in females, which suggests that degree of sociality is either indirectly related to reproductive senescence via the pace of life or simply a direct outcome of the pace of life.Subject Areasecology, evolution

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