An early-life survival and reproductive trade-off shapes selection on body size.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary trade-offs-opposing trait effects on total fitness via different fitness components-are likely to be widespread. Some key trade-offs are expected to be the result of chains of causation acting across an organism's lifetime. For example, a trait imparting reproductive benefits early in life may trade off against reduced survival to attain later-life reproductive opportunities. Tools in evolutionary quantitative genetics have recently been developed to formally characterize selection acting through different causal pathways throughout the life cycle and, therefore, to formally characterize evolutionary trade-offs. We use these methods to investigate a trade-off between early life reproduction and survival and how that trade-off affects selection on body size in the Soay sheep po

SUBMITTER: Janeiro MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12676467 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature