A demographic transition altered the strength of selection for fitness and age-specific survival and fertility in a 19th century American population.

ABSTRACT: Modernization has increased longevity and decreased fertility in many human populations, but it is not well understood how or to what extent these demographic transitions have altered patterns of natural selection. I integrate individual-based multivariate phenotypic selection approaches with evolutionary demographic methods to demonstrate how a demographic transition in 19th century female populations of Utah altered relationships between fitness and age-specific survival and fertility. Coincident with this demographic transition, natural selection for fitness, as measured by the opportunity for selection, increased by 13% to 20% over 65 years. Proportional contributions of age-specific survival to total selection (the complement to age-specific fertility) diminished from approximately on

SUBMITTER: Moorad JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3675805 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature