All organisms need energy to grow, maintain their bodies, and reproduce. Because energy is limited, an organism must allocate its available resources among competing needs. This allocation is called an energy budget.
Plants obtain energy through photosynthesis, then use it for growth, maintenance, and seed production. Animals must also spend energy acquiring food, and some expend additional energy caring for offspring. Organisms may also store energy—for example, bears build body fat that helps them survive winter hibernation.
All flashcards
What is a life history?
An organism’s pattern of events and resource allocation across its lifetime.
What is an energy budget?
The allocation of limited energy among an organism’s needs, such as growth, maintenance, and reproduction.
What is fecundity?
An individual’s potential reproductive capacity: the number of offspring it could produce under favorable conditions.
What is semelparity?
A reproductive strategy in which an organism reproduces once during its lifetime and then dies.
What is iteroparity?
A reproductive strategy in which an organism reproduces repeatedly during its lifetime.
Quiz questions
Which reproductive pattern is semelparity?Answer: Reproducing once during a lifetime and then dying.
Which reproductive pattern is iteroparity?Answer: Reproducing in multiple events during a lifetime.
In a fruit-fly study, what happened to males that mated with virgin females compared with males unable to mate?Answer: The males that mated had shorter lifespans.
In a fruit-fly study, how did the offspring production of larger females compare with that of smaller females per mating?Answer: Larger females produced twice as many offspring.
Why did fruit-fly males with reduced sperm supplies show a stronger preference for larger females?Answer: Larger females produced more offspring per mating, making limited opportunities more productive.
Based on Biology 2e by Mary Ann Clark, Matthew Douglas, Jung Choi (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.