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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Age-specific fitness components and their temporal variation in the barn owl
American Naturalist, Volume 169, No. 1, Year 2007
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Description
Theory predicts that temporal variability plays an important role in the evolution of life histories, but empirical studies evaluating this prediction are rare. In constant environments, fitness can be measured by the population growth rate λ, and the sensitivity of λ to changes in fitness components estimates selection on these traits. In variable environments, fitness is measured by the stochastic growth rate λs, and stochastic sensitivities estimate selection pressure. Here we examine age-specific schedules for reproduction and survival in a barn owl population (Tyto alba). We estimated how temporal variability affected fitness and selection, accounting for sampling variance. Despite large sample sizes of old individuals, we found no strong evidence for senescence. The most variable fitness components were associated with reproduction. Survival was less variable. Stochastic simulations showed that the observed variation decreased fitness by about 30%, but the sensitivities of λ and λs to changes in all fitness components were almost equal, suggesting that temporal variation had negligible effects on selection. We obtained these results despite high observed variability in the fitness components and relatively short generation time of the study organism, a situation in which temporal variability should be particularly important for natural selection and early senescence is expected. © 2007 by The University of Chicago.
Authors & Co-Authors
Altwegg, Res
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Canada, Victoria
University of Victoria
Schaub, Michael
Switzerland, Sempach
Swiss Ornithological Institute
Switzerland, Bern
University of Bern
Roulin, Alexandre
Switzerland, Lausanne
Université de Lausanne Unil
Statistics
Citations: 71
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 5
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1086/510215
ISSN:
00030147
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study