Wolf in sheep's clothing: Model misspecification undermines tests of the neutral theory for life histories.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the processes behind change in reproductive state along life-history trajectories is a salient research program in evolutionary ecology. Two processes, state dependence and heterogeneity, can drive the dynamics of change among states. Both processes can operate simultaneously, begging the difficult question of how to tease them apart in practice. The Neutral Theory for Life Histories (NTLH) holds that the bulk of variations in life-history trajectories is due to state dependence and is hence neutral: Once previous (breeding) state is taken into account, variations are mostly random. Lifetime reproductive success (LRS), the number of descendants produced over an individual's reproductive life span, has been used to infer support for NTLH in natura. Support stemmed from accurat

SUBMITTER: Authier M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5433986 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature