Life Histories, Axes of Variation in

Gaillard, Jean‐Michel; Lemaître, Jean‐François; Berger, Vérane; Bonenfant, Christophe; Devillard, Sébastien; Douhard, Mathieu; Gamelon, Marlène; Plard, Floriane; Lebreton, Jean Dominique

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-800049-6.00085-8

Cited by 69 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…The positive covariation among biological times is well assessed and constitutes the major axis of life‐history variation in the living world (Gaillard et al. ; Salguero‐Gómez et al. for reviews in animals and plants, respectively).…”

Section: A Critical Appraisal Of Each Of the Nine Predictions Formulamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Williams' legacy: A critical reappraisal of his nine predictions about the evolution of senescence

2017

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Williams' evolutionary theory of senescence based on antagonistic pleiotropy has become a landmark in evolutionary biology, and more recently in biogerontology and evolutionary medicine. In his original article, Williams launched a set of nine "testable deductions" from his theory. Although some of these predictions have been repeatedly discussed, most have been overlooked and no systematic evaluation of the whole set of Williams' original predictions has been performed. For the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of the Williams' article, we provide an updated evaluation of all these predictions. We present the pros and cons of each prediction based on recent accumulation of both theoretical and empirical studies performed in the laboratory and in the wild. From our viewpoint, six predictions are mostly supported by our current knowledge at least under some conditions (although Williams' theory cannot thoroughly explain why for some of them). Three predictions, all involving the timing of senescence, are not supported. Our critical review of Williams' predictions highlights the importance of William's contribution and clearly demonstrates that, 60 years after its publication, his article does not show any sign of senescence.

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Section: A Critical Appraisal Of Each Of the Nine Predictions Formulamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Williams' legacy: A critical reappraisal of his nine predictions about the evolution of senescence

2017

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“…After obtaining estimates of between-individual variance in survival at the onset of adulthood for all of our eleven study populations, we regressed species-specific variance estimates against the position of the species on the slow-fast life-history continuum, to support or infirm the canalization hypothesis. We used generation time, the weighted mean age of females when they give birth, to rank species on the continuum (Gaillard et al 2005). Generation time presents the interesting property that it is directly linked to the elasticities of demographic traits, that is the relative impact of a proportional change in trait values on the population growth rate (Charlesworth 2000;Lebreton 2005).…”

Section: Interspecific Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, a recurring pattern in cross-species comparative demography is the existence of a slow-fast continuum of life histories going from long-lived, late-maturing, and slow-reproducing species to short-lived, early-maturing, and highly fecund species (see Gaillard et al 2016 for a recent review). The continuum is in part linked to variation in body mass, temperature, and development time (Harvey and Zammuto 1985;Gillooly et al 2001) but still occurs when allometric relationships linking life-history traits and body mass or size have been accounted for (Stearns 1983;Brown and West 2000;Gaillard et al 2016), leading to the idea that the slow-fast continuum of life histories reflects constraints or opportunities afforded by particular lifestyles (Brown and Sibly 2006), in relation to or independently of energy allocation trade-offs (Kirkwood and Holliday 1979). Irrespective of the mechanism(s) underlying this slow-fast continuum of life histories, the ranking of a species along the continuum is known to correlate with the rate at which given amounts of variation in life-history traits generates variation in population growth rate (Pfister 1998).…”

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confidence: 99%

Evidence of reduced individual heterogeneity in adult survival of long-lived species

et al. 2016

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The canalization hypothesis postulates that the rate at which trait variation generates variation in the average individual fitness in a population determines how buffered traits are against environmental and genetic factors. The ranking of a species on the slow-fast continuum - the covariation among life-history traits describing species-specific life cycles along a gradient going from a long life, slow maturity, and low annual reproductive output, to a short life, fast maturity, and high annual reproductive output - strongly correlates with the relative fitness impact of a given amount of variation in adult survival. Under the canalization hypothesis, long-lived species are thus expected to display less individual heterogeneity in survival at the onset of adulthood, when reproductive values peak, than short-lived species. We tested this life-history prediction by analysing long-term time series of individual-based data in nine species of birds and mammals using capture-recapture models. We found that individual heterogeneity in survival was higher in species with short-generation time (< 3 years) than in species with long generation time (> 4 years). Our findings provide the first piece of empirical evidence for the canalization hypothesis at the individual level from the wild.

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“…Second, patterns of senescence can be highly variable among species (Colchero et al, ; Jones et al, ; Tidière et al, ). Comparative analyses have shown that senescence patterns across multicellular organisms can be predicted by ecological traits, lifestyles and covariation among life‐history traits (Gaillard et al, ; Péron, Gimenez, Charmantier, Gaillard, & Crochet, ; Ricklefs, ; Salguero‐Gómez & Jones, ). In particular, both age at the onset of senescence and rates of senescence appear to be linked to the position of a species along the fast–slow life‐history continuum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population position along the fast–slow life‐history continuum predicts intraspecific variation in actuarial senescence

Cayuela

Lemaître

Bonnaire

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Patterns of actuarial senescence can be highly variable among species. Previous comparative analyses revealed that both age at the onset of senescence and rates of senescence are linked to position of a species along the fast–slow life‐history continuum. As there are few long‐term datasets of wild populations with known‐age individuals, intraspecific (i.e. between‐population) variation in senescence is understudied and limited to comparisons of wild and captive populations of the same species, mostly birds and mammals. In this paper, we examined how population position along the fast–slow life‐history continuum affects intraspecific variation in senescence in an amphibian, Bombina variegata. We used capture–recapture data collected in four populations with contrasting life‐history strategies. Senescence trajectories were analysed using Bayesian capture–recapture models. We show that in populations with fast life histories the onset of actuarial senescence was earlier and individuals aged at a faster rate than individuals in populations with slow life histories. Our study provides one of the few empirical examples of among‐population variation in actuarial senescence patterns in the wild and confirms that the fast–slow life‐history gradient is associated with both macroevolutionary and microevolutionary patterns of actuarial senescence.

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Life Histories, Axes of Variation in

Cited by 69 publications

References 80 publications

The Williams' legacy: A critical reappraisal of his nine predictions about the evolution of senescence

The Williams' legacy: A critical reappraisal of his nine predictions about the evolution of senescence

Evidence of reduced individual heterogeneity in adult survival of long-lived species

Population position along the fast–slow life‐history continuum predicts intraspecific variation in actuarial senescence

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