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THE IMPACT OF PREDATION ON LIFE HISTORY EVOLUTION IN TRINIDADIAN GUPPIES: GENETIC BASIS OF OBSERVED LIFE HISTORY PATTERNS
Author(s) -
Reznick David
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1982.tb05493.x
Subject(s) - biology , life history , library science , genealogy , environmental ethics , ecology , history , computer science , philosophy
The evolution of life history patterns often has been inferred from correlations between the life histories and either population survivorship curves (e.g., Tinkle, 1972; Tinkle and Ballinger, 1972; Vinegar, 1975) or environmental factors suspected of affecting survivorship (Constantz, 1976, 1979; Maiorana, 1976; Stearns, 1976; Law et al., 1977). One difficulty with basing interpretations on survivorship curves is that one cannot distinguish between interpopulation differences in mortality due to external factors (possible sources of selection) and genetic factors that influence mortality (possible responses to selection). A general difficulty with the second approach is that the relationship between the suspected environmental variable and the pattern of mortality that it causes in the study organism is either unknown or poorly characterized; e.g., is the survivorship of adults only, juveniles only, or all age classes affected? The expected response of the affected populations depends strongly on this pattern of mortality (e.g., Gadgil and Bossert, 1970; Schaffer, 1974a, 1974b; Law, 1979; Michod, 1979; Charlesworth, 1980). In few systems is the pattern of mortality known with confidence. In addition to these difficulties, it is rarely known whether there is a genetic basis to observed interpopulation differences in life histories. Establishing this genetic basis is fundamental to concluding that these differences are an evolved response to demographic selection. Most