BIOLOGY 3SS3 Lecture 4: Unit #4 (Up to Midterm 1).pdf
12 Mar 2015
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Introduction: life history refers to patterns of how organisms allocate resources to key components underlying reproductive success, give a one-word example of such a component. Diversity: di ering life-history strategies are part of the reason for the remark- able diversity of life. Organisms that are too similar are not expected to co-exist. But two organisms may be able to exploit the same resources using di erent life-history strategies. Oaks and dandelions: we can think of acorns as machines for making more acorns, and dan- delion seeds as machines for making more dandelion seeds, both have access to very similar biochemical machinery. Answer: oak trees wait longer to reproduce. Answer: oak trees put much more energy into each seed. Answer: dandelion seeds are dispersed by wind, acorns by ani- mals. Scales of competition: organisms compete with other individuals of the same species, they also compete with other species, we think about life history on di erent scales.
