Directionality theory: an empirical study of an entropic principle in life-history evolution.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the relationship between ecological constraints and life-history properties constitutes a central problem in evolutionary ecology. Directionality theory, a model of the evolutionary process based on demographic entropy, a measure of the uncertainty in the age of the mother of a randomly chosen newborn, provides an analytical framework for addressing this problem. The theory predicts that in populations that spend the greater part of their evolutionary history in the stationary growth phase (equilibrium species), entropy will increase. Equilibrium species will be characterized by high iteroparity and strong demographic stability. In populations that spend the greater part of their evolutionary history in the exponential growth phase (opportunistic species), entropy will decrea

SUBMITTER: Ziehe M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1559808 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature