module 4 life history activity
Exercise 1: Evolution of Life Histories **Ignore the error that pops up when you load the simulation, it won’t affect the results** We will use this model to explore how factors such as predation and competition affect the evolution of life history traits. This is a simple model of life history theory. Depending on the amount of predation, organisms evolve different sizes, parental investment, growth, and investment in somatic maintenance. This is an energy cycling model. Energy units come into the system through food growth (e.g., plants) in the patches. The prey consume the food in the patches, and then use that energy for their metabolism, growth, somatic maintenance and reproduction. If their energy stores fall to 0, they die of starvation. If it goes above a threshold, they reproduce, and transfer part of their energy to their offspring. Click on the “Model Info” tab at the bottom of the page to access important information about the simulation and answer the following questions: Question 1 0.25 pts How does reproductive investment/parental investment (they are the same thing in this model) relate to the time it takes for a “turtle” to reproduce, and the energy budget that offspring start with? Group of answer choices Turtles cannot reproduce until they are adults, and then they transfer energy to their offspring only once they are above a certain size Reproductive investment does not influence the time it takes for a turtle to reproduce, but it does alter the energy budget of offspring Turtles must be fully grown to reproduce, and will reproduce when their energy budget is equal or greater than its reproductive investment plus size and somatic maintenance. The turtle then transfers units of energy equal to its parental investment gene value to its offspring Turtles do not invest in their offspring and energy allocations are random Question 2 0.25 pts How does the growth “gene” affect how quickly the “turtle” can reproduce? Group of answer choices Turtles can only reproduce when they have reached their maximum adult size, and so the smaller a turtle is, the faster it can reproduce Turtles can only reproduce when they have reached their maximum adult size, and so the smaller a turtle is, the slower it can reproduce The growth gene does not affect reproduction Turtles can only reproduce when they are small, as it takes too much energy to maintain a larger body size Question 3 0.25 pts How does size affect competition and metabolism? Group of answer choices Body size does not affect competition, but it does affect metabolism Body size does affect competition, but it does not affect metabolism The smaller a turtle is, the better they can avoid others and compete for resources, thereby using more energy The larger a turtle is, the better they can compete for food. However, larger turtles need more food to sustain their larger body size Question 4 0.25 pts How does somatic maintenance (i.e., repair to and maintenance of the body) relate to an individual’s age at death? Group of answer choices The more energy allocated to somatic maintenance, the longer an individual can live The more energy allocated to somatic maintenance, the shorter its lifespan Energy is not allotted to somatic maintenance in this model Somatic maintenance does not affect lifespan Set the following parameters: • • • • • Starting population = 100 Predation = 0.8 (80% chance of being eaten each tick) Log mutation rate = -2.7 Food growth rate = 10 Max generations = 100 Click setup and run-experiment to allow the population to evolve. You can move the “model speed” slider at the top of the page to run it more quickly. Run 3 replicates and copy/paste your results below. Question 5 1 pts Results for High Predation experiment (copy and paste your results from the simulation) Calculate the average • • • • Size Growth investment Reproductive investment Somatic maintenance Now set predation to 0 (keep everything else as before). Click setup and runexperiment to rerun the experiment. Run 3 replicates and copy/paste your results below (this one might take a while). Question 6 1 pts Results for No Predation experiment (copy and paste your results from the simulation) Calculate the average • • • • Size Growth investment Reproductive investment Somatic maintenance Question 7 1 pts How did the life history traits change in response to lowering predation? • o o o o Question 8 Size Growth investment Reproductive investment Somatic maintenance 5 pts Why did these differences caused by predation emerge? Do they match what you’d expect in natural populations? Please refer to the Model Info tab and examples from CogBooks subtopic 4.3 in your explanation. • • • • Size Growth investment Reproductive investment Somatic maintenance Question 9 1 pts What ecological phenomena, other than predation, might cause a lot of mortality – specifically the kind of mortality that would select for particular life history traits? Explain why. Exercise 2: Predicting life history traits Choose a fictional species from a science fiction or fantasy book, movie, or other media. Please choose one that is non-human for its entire life (i.e. traditional werewolf is a poor choice because they are simply humans most of the time). If you are unsure of the answer, or cannot find it, please infer the answer based on your understanding of the species and concept. “I don’t know” will not earn points. Fictional characters which represent real species are NOT valid. For example, choosing Simba from the Lion King for this assignment will cause you to lose points because he is an African lion which is a real species. Question 10 1 pts Question 11 1 pts What “species” did you pick and from what source (which movie, book, etc.) What is known about the life history of this species? Question 12 7 pts Given what is known, what could you infer about the other aspects of the life history of this species? Please provide your reasoning for each inference. • • • • • • • • • • • • • Development Reproductive rate Litter size Reproductive age Body size Reproductive type (semelparous vs. iteroparous) Lifespan Competitive ability Survivorship Parental investment Population size (below or above carrying capacity, why?) Dispersal ability Somatic maintenance • Question 13 • What other life history impacts would you expect to see in this species, and why? 1 pts
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