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. 2014 Jul 2;9(7):e99878. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099878

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© 2014 Eliassen, Jørgensen

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.

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Annual reproductive investment evolves in a trade-off with survival. (A) EPP is common in short-lived species (grey) and drops with increasing life-expectancy (black line, parameters in Table 1). The pattern is robust but the predicted EPP level depends on ecological parameters, e.g., mortality cost of reproduction (green, = 0.05 and = 0.2 for thin and bold line, respectively; blue, = 2 and = 4), and the proportion of adult mortality experienced during breeding (orange, = 0.1 and = 0.5). (B) For short-lived species, the ESS involves high EPP, reduced defence, and elevated care. With increasing longevity, the evolutionary outcome is low or no EPP (black line) and more territorial defence. (C) Fitness landscape for combinations of male care and defence strategies in a short-lived species (longevity 0.5 breeding seasons; = 1.59). Higher EPP results in less territorial defence, but the evolutionarily stable care strategy (★) is below that of the cooperative solution (○).

Inline graphic — Annual reproductive investment evolves in a trade-off with survival. (A) EPP is common in short-lived species (grey) and drops with increasing life-expectancy (black line, parameters in Table 1). The pattern is robust but the predicted EPP level depends on ecological parameters, e.g., mortality cost of reproduction (green, = 0.05 and = 0.2 for thin and bold line, respectively; blue, = 2 and = 4), and the proportion of adult mortality experienced during breeding (orange, = 0.1 and = 0.5). (B) For short-lived species, the ESS involves high EPP, reduced defence, and elevated care. With increasing longevity, the evolutionary outcome is low or no EPP (black line) and more territorial defence. (C) Fitness landscape for combinations of male care and defence strategies in a short-lived species (longevity 0.5 breeding seasons; = 1.59). Higher EPP results in less territorial defence, but the evolutionarily stable care strategy (★) is below that of the cooperative solution (○).