Fitness consequences of peak reproductive effort in a resource pulse system.

ABSTRACT: The age trajectory of reproductive performance of many iteroparous species features an early - life increase in performance followed by a late - life senescent decline. The largest contribution of lifetime reproductive success is therefore gained at the age at which reproductive performance peaks. Using long term data on North American red squirrels we show that the environmental conditions individuals encountered could cause variation among individuals in the "height" and timing of this peak, contributing to life history variation and fitness in this population that experiences irregular resource pulses. As expected, high peak effort was positively associated with lifetime reproductive output up to a high level of annual effort. Furthermore, individuals that matched their peak reproductiv

SUBMITTER: Hamalainen A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5571191 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature