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