BIOL 3170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Fledge, Ecology, Eastern Gray Squirrel
Document Summary
Life history biology analyzes all the components of fitness (features which make an individual successful) Life history: the set of strategies an organism uses to allocate its energy, materials and time. In particular, the allocation of those resources between growth and maintenance, and reproduction. Fitness: a relative measure of reproductive success of an organism in passing its alleles to the next generation, based on the number of successful offspring an individual leaves. What finite things do organisms budget: time, matter (i. e. nutrients, energy. What interests do organisms allocate these 3 finite things among: foraging (acquisition of nutrients/energy, growth, maintenance, reproduction. Allocations are context-dependent: consider a female migratory songbird, april: high energy allocation to migration. June: high energy allocation to egg production: august: high energy allocation to moulting feathers. Organisms are input-output systems: proximate goal of input: get energy and materials, ultimate goal of input: get progeny.
