Reproductive strategies conferring species dominance in marine mysid (Peracarida, Mysida) species in coastal waters off Vancouver Island, BC

Cold-water mysid species are key components of north Pacific coastal ecosystems and yet much of their life history remains unknown. In Clayoquot Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, a dozen or so species have been identified, with four occurring consistently in samples: Holmesimysis sculpta (W. Tattersall, 1933), Neomysis rayii (Murdoch, 1885), Telacanthomysis columbiae (W. Tattersall, 1933) (Fukuoka & Murano, 2001) and Columbiaemysis ignota Holmquist 1982. In this article growth and reproduction of these species over a 24-month period (May 2010-April 2012) is described, showing recovery from annual removal by the eastern Pacific grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus (Lilljeborg, 1861)) over winter, when pressure from this main predator has been relieved. Holmesimysis sculpta dominates the species flock by employing different life history strategies. It is less seasonal than sister species, overcoming a presumed resource limitation scenario and exhibits year-round reproduction, thereby demonstrating more rapid population rebound following predation and, therefore, retain dominance.

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Cuckoos, cowbirds and hosts: adaptations, trade-offs and constraints

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2006.1849 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 362 (1486) ◽

pp. 1873-1886 ◽

Cited By ~ 93

Author(s):

Oliver Krüger

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Brood Parasitism ◽

Reproductive Strategies ◽

Life History Theory ◽

Model Systems ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Host System ◽

Brood Parasites ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Evolution Of Life

The interactions between brood parasitic birds and their host species provide one of the best model systems for coevolution. Despite being intensively studied, the parasite–host system provides ample opportunities to test new predictions from both coevolutionary theory as well as life-history theory in general. I identify four main areas that might be especially fruitful: cuckoo female gentes as alternative reproductive strategies, non-random and nonlinear risks of brood parasitism for host individuals, host parental quality and targeted brood parasitism, and differences and similarities between predation risk and parasitism risk. Rather than being a rare and intriguing system to study coevolutionary processes, I believe that avian brood parasites and their hosts are much more important as extreme cases in the evolution of life-history strategies. They provide unique examples of trade-offs and situations where constraints are either completely removed or particularly severe.

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Breeding biology of the Green-backed Tit (Parus monticolus) in southwest China

Avian Research ◽

10.1186/s40657-021-00296-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ping Ye ◽

Xiaogang Yao ◽

Jianli Bi ◽

Guangrong Li ◽

Wei Liang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Reproductive Strategies ◽

Southwest China ◽

Parental Behavior ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Breeding Biology ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Reproductive Outcome ◽

Behavioral Patterns ◽

Evolution Of Life

AbstractStudies on breeding biology enable us to broaden our understanding of the evolution of life history strategies. We studied the breeding biology of the Green-backed Tit (Parus monticolus) to provide comprehensive data on nest and egg characteristics, parental behavior throughout egg laying and nestling periods, and reproductive outcome. Our study reveals adaptive behavioral patterns and reproductive strategies for P. monticolus.

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Facultative sex and reproductive strategies in response to male availability in the spiny stick insect, Extatosoma tiaratum

Australian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1071/zo10012 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 58 (4) ◽

pp. 228 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Angela Schneider ◽

Mark A. Elgar

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Environmental Conditions ◽

Reproductive Strategies ◽

Reproductive Output ◽

Stick Insect ◽

Model System ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Evolutionary Significance ◽

Social Environments ◽

Reproductive State

Facultative thelytoky, in which females can reproduce both sexually and asexually, offers a promising model system to understand the evolutionary significance of sex, by providing insights into whether the different reproductive modes reflect an adaptive life-history response to varying environmental conditions. Females of the spiny stick insect, Extatosoma tiaratum, can reproduce both sexually or asexually. We show that virgin females signal their reproductive state: males respond to signals produced by virgin females that have not commenced ovipositing, but fail to respond to ovipositing virgin females. Virgin females reared under different social environments varied their reproductive output: virgin females reared in the absence of males laid more eggs over a seven-day period than virgin females reared in the presence of males. The reproductive output of mated females over a seven-day period was higher than that of virgin females. These data suggest that female E. tiaratum adjust several life-history strategies in conjunction with facultative thelytoky.

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Sex, attachment, and the development of reproductive strategies

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x09000016 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 1-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 279

Author(s):

Marco Del Giudice

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Life History ◽

Middle Childhood ◽

Environmental Risk ◽

Reproductive Strategies ◽

Peer Group ◽

Evolutionary Model ◽

Adaptive Plasticity ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Trade Offs

AbstractThis target article presents an integrated evolutionary model of the development of attachment and human reproductive strategies. It is argued that sex differences in attachment emerge in middle childhood, have adaptive significance in both children and adults, and are part of sex-specific life history strategies. Early psychosocial stress and insecure attachment act as cues of environmental risk, and tend to switch development towards reproductive strategies favoring current reproduction and higher mating effort. However, due to sex differences in life history trade-offs between mating and parenting, insecure males tend to adopt avoidant strategies, whereas insecure females tend to adopt anxious/ambivalent strategies, which maximize investment from kin and mates. Females are expected to shift to avoidant patterns when environmental risk is more severe. Avoidant and ambivalent attachment patterns also have different adaptive values for boys and girls, in the context of same-sex competition in the peer group: in particular, the competitive and aggressive traits related to avoidant attachment can be favored as a status-seeking strategy for males. Finally, adrenarche is proposed as the endocrine mechanism underlying the reorganization of attachment in middle childhood, and the implications for the relationship between attachment and sexual development are explored. Sex differences in the development of attachment can be fruitfully integrated within the broader framework of adaptive plasticity in life history strategies, thus contributing to a coherent evolutionary theory of human development.

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Does seed heteromorphism have different roles in the fitness of species with contrasting life history strategies?

Botany ◽

10.1139/b08-106 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 86 (12) ◽

pp. 1404-1415 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Pamela D. Lerner ◽

Yuguang Bai ◽

Ernesto F.A. Morici

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Perennial Grasses ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Relative Contribution ◽

Competitive Environments ◽

Heavy Grazing ◽

Limiting Nutrients ◽

Slow Growing ◽

Seed Heteromorphism ◽

Growth And Reproduction

Punagrass ( Achnatherum brachychaetum (Godr.) Barkworth) and flechilla grande (Nassella clarazii (Ball) Barkworth) are perennial grasses native to Argentine grasslands, with contrasting life history strategies. Both species have seed heteromorphism, but punagrass is an invasive whereas flechilla is a climax species. Experiments were conducted to determine the relative contribution of chasmogamous (CH) seeds and cleistogamous (CL) seeds to growth and reproduction of the two species. CH progeny of punagrass grew and developed fast, but progeny of the largest CL seeds of the first node allocated more resources to the production of CH seeds. Growth and seed production of CH progeny of punagrass were enhanced by increasing nutrients, displaying adaptations to nutrient-rich environments. Thus, the slow-growing CL progeny may have potential to persist as a source of CH propagules until the creation of conditions favouring the less competitive CH progeny. Since CH progeny allocated more to CL seeds, but produced fewer CH seeds under low nutrient conditions, it is suggested that competitive environments would increase the production of CL seeds. Furthermore, when nutrients were abundant, punagrass allocated more to CH seeds. Under limiting nutrients, flechilla grande produced a few large CH seeds. The production of large seeds in flechilla grande may confer superior competitive ability to its progeny, but it may be disadvantageous under heavy grazing, which favours invasive species such as punagrass with both large CL seeds and many small CH seeds of high colonizing potential.

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Seasonally contrasting life-history strategies in the land snail Cornu aspersum: physiological and ecological implications

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z10-066 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 88 (10) ◽

pp. 995-1002 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

A. Nicolai ◽

J. Filser ◽

V. Briand ◽

M. Charrier

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Reproductive Success ◽

Reproductive Strategies ◽

Energy Content ◽

Reproductive Traits ◽

Land Snails ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Hatching Rate ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Cornu Aspersum

When a life history is characterized by both seasonality in reproduction and seasonality in offspring fitness, trade-offs in reproductive traits might be adjustments to seasonal time constraints to optimize reproductive success. Therefore, we compared in the laboratory the trade-offs in reproductive traits between early (after maturity) and delayed (after dormancy) reproduction in young land snails Cornu aspersum (Müller, 1774) (syn. Helix aspersa ), depending on food energy content. We also investigated the maternal investment in reproductive output in both breeding periods. After attaining maturity, snails produced single clutches with many small eggs, which resulted, in contrast to previous studies, in large offspring with a low hatching rate owing to high within-clutch cannibalism. The young cannibals may have a higher survival probability in the following hibernation. Snails starting to reproduce after hibernation had smaller clutches of larger eggs, resulting in high quantity of lighter offspring. The clutch mass was positively correlated with maternal mass in snails reproducing after having attained maturity and negatively correlated in snails reproducing after hibernation. Multiple oviposition occurred only after hibernation, thereby enhancing reproductive success. An energy-rich diet did not affect reproductive strategies. Further studies should focus on seasonal plasticity of reproductive strategies in natural populations of C. aspersum and investigate survival probabilities of breeders and juveniles in an evolutionary context.

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Relationships between temperature and Pacific hake distribution vary across latitude and life-history stage

Marine Ecology Progress Series ◽

10.3354/meps13286 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 639 ◽

pp. 185-197 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

MJ Malick ◽

ME Hunsicker ◽

MA Haltuch ◽

SL Parker-Stetter ◽

AM Berger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Environmental Effects ◽

Environmental Conditions ◽

Vancouver Island ◽

Additive Models ◽

Life History Stage ◽

Fish Stocks ◽

Merluccius Productus ◽

Multiple Dimensions ◽

Effects Of Temperature

Environmental conditions can have spatially complex effects on the dynamics of marine fish stocks that change across life-history stages. Yet the potential for non-stationary environmental effects across multiple dimensions, e.g. space and ontogeny, are rarely considered. In this study, we examined the evidence for spatial and ontogenetic non-stationary temperature effects on Pacific hake Merluccius productus biomass along the west coast of North America. Specifically, we used Bayesian additive models to estimate the effects of temperature on Pacific hake biomass distribution and whether the effects change across space or life-history stage. We found latitudinal differences in the effects of temperature on mature Pacific hake distribution (i.e. age 3 and older); warmer than average subsurface temperatures were associated with higher biomass north of Vancouver Island, but lower biomass offshore of Washington and southern Vancouver Island. In contrast, immature Pacific hake distribution (i.e. age 2) was better explained by a nonlinear temperature effect; cooler than average temperatures were associated with higher biomass coastwide. Together, our results suggest that Pacific hake distribution is driven by interactions between age composition and environmental conditions and highlight the importance of accounting for varying environmental effects across multiple dimensions.

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Exposure to glucocorticoids alters life history strategies in a facultatively paedomorphic salamander

Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A Ecological and Integrative Physiology ◽

10.1002/jez.2445 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jason R. Bohenek ◽

Christopher J. Leary ◽

William J. Resetarits

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Life History Strategies

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Natural variation in plant telomere length is associated with flowering time

The Plant Cell ◽

10.1093/plcell/koab022 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jae Young Choi ◽

Liliia R Abdulkina ◽

Jun Yin ◽

Inna B Chastukhina ◽

John T Lovell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Telomere Length ◽

Flowering Time ◽

Dna Sequences ◽

Genome Wide Association Study ◽

Genomic Analysis ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Length Variation ◽

Chromosomal Structure ◽

Chromosome Integrity

Abstract Telomeres are highly repetitive DNA sequences found at the ends of chromosomes that protect the chromosomes from deterioration during cell division. Here, using whole genome re-sequencing and terminal restriction fragment assays, we found substantial natural intraspecific variation in telomere length in Arabidopsis thaliana, rice (Oryza sativa), and maize (Zea mays). Genome-wide association study (GWAS) mapping in A. thaliana identified 13 regions with GWAS-significant associations underlying telomere length variation, including a region that harbors the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene. Population genomic analysis provided evidence for a selective sweep at the TERT region associated with longer telomeres. We found that telomere length is negatively correlated with flowering time variation not only in A. thaliana, but also in maize and rice, indicating a link between life history traits and chromosome integrity. Our results point to several possible reasons for this correlation, including the possibility that longer telomeres may be more adaptive in plants that have faster developmental rates (and therefore flower earlier). Our work suggests that chromosomal structure itself might be an adaptive trait associated with plant life history strategies.

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