On the Relationship between r/K Selection and Environmental Carrying Capacity: A New Habitat Templet for Plant Life History Strategies

Oikos ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas R. Taylor ◽  
Lonnie W. Aarssen ◽  
Craig Loehle
2013 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 740-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. B. Adler ◽  
R. Salguero-Gomez ◽  
A. Compagnoni ◽  
J. S. Hsu ◽  
J. Ray-Mukherjee ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 452-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoxiao Wang ◽  
Aymé Spor ◽  
Thibault Nidelet ◽  
Pierre Montalent ◽  
Christine Dillmann ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTAdaptation is the process whereby a population or species becomes better fitted to its habitat through modifications of various life history traits which can be positively or negatively correlated. The molecular factors underlying these covariations remain to be elucidated. UsingSaccharomyces cerevisiaeas a model system, we have investigated the effects on life history traits of varying the dosage of genes involved in the transformation of resources into energy. Changing gene dosage for each of three glycolytic enzyme genes (hexokinase 2, phosphoglucose isomerase, and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase) resulted in variation in enzyme activities, glucose consumption rate, and life history traits (growth rate, carrying capacity, and cell size). However, the range of effects depended on which enzyme was expressed differently. Most interestingly, these changes revealed a genetic trade-off between carrying capacity and cell size, supporting the discovery of two extreme life history strategies already described in yeast populations: the “ants,” which have lower glycolytic gene dosage, take up glucose slowly, and have a small cell size but reach a high carrying capacity, and the “grasshoppers,” which have higher glycolytic gene dosage, consume glucose more rapidly, and allocate it to a larger cell size but reach a lower carrying capacity. These results demonstrate antagonist pleiotropy for glycolytic genes and show that altered dosage of a single gene drives a switch between two life history strategies in yeast.


2019 ◽  
Vol 224 (4) ◽  
pp. 1490-1503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Archibald ◽  
Gareth P. Hempson ◽  
Caroline Lehmann

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose B. Lanuza ◽  
Romina Rader ◽  
Jamie Stavert ◽  
Liam K. Kendall ◽  
Manu E. Saunders ◽  
...  

Plant life-history strategies are constrained by cost-benefit trade-offs that determine plant form and function. However, despite recent advances in the understanding of trade-offs for vegetative and physiological traits, little is known about plant reproductive economics and how they constrain plant life-history strategies and shape interactions with floral visitors. Here, we investigate plant reproductive trade-offs and how these drive interactions with floral visitors using a dataset of 17 reproductive traits for 1,506 plant species from 28 plant-pollinator studies across 18 countries. We tested whether a plant's reproductive strategy predicts its interactions with floral visitors and if the different reproductive traits predict the plant's role within the pollination network. We found that over half of all plant reproductive trait variation was explained by two independent axes that encompassed plant form and function. Specifically, the first axis indicated the presence of a trade-off between flower number and flower size, while the second axis indicated a pollinator dependency trade-off. Plant reproductive trade-offs helped explain partly the presence or absence of interactions with floral visitors, but not differences in visitation rate. However, we did find important differences in the interaction level among floral visitor guilds on the different axes of trait variation. Finally, we found that plant size and floral rewards were the most important traits in the understanding of the plant species network role. Our results highlight the importance of plant reproductive trade-offs in determining plant life-history strategies and plant-pollinator interactions in a global context.


2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1229-1235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Tarhouni ◽  
Azaiez Ouled Belgacem ◽  
Mohamed Neffati ◽  
Belgacem Hench

Author(s):  
John Serafini

Two traits are fundamental in defining plant life history strategies: How big can a species get? And how big does it need to get before it can reproduce? Previous research has shown that there is a general positive relationship between these two traits, across species, and this can be accounted for as a trade-off. In this project, I explored whether this relationship differs among herbaceous species with perennial versus annual or biennial life histories. Perennials, because of their capacity to grow across several years, might generally be expected to display a relatively large MAX (maximum potential body size) and hence large MIN (minimum reproductive threshold size) compared with annuals or biennials that live only one or two years. In addition, annuals/biennials might be expected generally to have a smaller MIN for a given MAX, compared with perennials because of selection in the ancestral past — i.e. in frequently disturbed habitats, where annuals and biennials are common, predictable early death (from disturbance) has imposed strong selection to produce at least some offspring quickly, regardless of how small/suppressed the plant might be. I tested these predictions for resident plants sampled from natural populations of 105 species found in the vicinity of Kingston, Ontario. Remarkably, the results support neither prediction, and point to an alternative consequence of selection in shaping plant life history strategies; i.e. small MIN for a given MAX has also been favoured in perennials but for a different reason — as a strategy for competitive fitness.


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