Development, life histories and population dynamics

Abstract

The life history of any animal concerns the various details of its reproduction and development. These include characteristics of the life cycle, known as life history traits, such as size at birth, age and size at maturity, longevity, mortality, fecundity, number and sex ratio of offspring, as well as the responses of these variables to factors such as diet, temperature and humidity. Most of these life history traits represent key variables in demography, or the study of populations. Combined, these traits are expressed in ways that affect evolutionary fitness, with inevitable trade-offs between reproduction and survival. A good introduction to the interaction of these factors in relation to the way certain life histories have evolved is provided by Stearns (1992).