Life History Strategies and Trade-Offs
Description
Organisms' life history strategies reflect the trade-off of finite resources to competing functions such as maintenance, growth and reproduction. It follows therefore, that allocation of resources to a reproductive event (for example) will come at a cost to growth, maintenance and possible future reproductive events. This module will explore relationships between: age and size, survival and reproductive performance. It will investigate the interaction between phenotypic variation resulting in selection coupled with the expression of genetic variation that facilitates a response to selection.
Learning Outcomes
Discuss the evolution of life history strategies
Differentiate models of population growth
Describe the influence of genetics on demography
Interpret physiological and evolutionary tradeoffs