Reproductive success and offspring survival decline for female elephant seals past prime age.

ABSTRACT: Maternal age can influence reproductive success and offspring fitness, but the timing, magnitude and direction of those impacts are not well understood. Evolutionary theory predicts that selection on fertility senescence is stronger than maternal effect senescence, and therefore, the rate of maternal effect senescence will be faster than fertility senescence. We used a 36-year study of northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) to investigate reproductive senescence. Our dataset included 103,746 sightings of 1203 known-age female northern elephant seals. We hypothesized that fertility (maternal reproductive success), offspring survival and recruitment into the breeding population, and male offspring production would decline with advanced maternal age. Furthermore, we hypothesized th

SUBMITTER: Payne AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11880645 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature