What is individual quality? An evolutionary perspective

Wilson, Alastair J.; Nussey, Daniel H.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2009.10.002

Cited by 360 publications

(422 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…High‐quality individuals were thus characterized by higher body condition, greater longevity, and having a higher probability of successfully breeding at their last attempt and of reproducing at an older age. As expected from an axis reflecting individual quality, PC1 was strongly correlated to a proxy of lifetime fitness (Wilson & Nussey, 2010), with higher quality females showing a higher number of reproductive events through the study period (linear regression: n = 113, R 2 = 0.62, F = 178.6, df = 111, p < .001).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 62%

“…For example, individuals who experience favorable environmental conditions early in life, known as “silver spoon” effects, can have reduced costs of reproduction throughout their lives (Vetter et al., 2016). Quality metrics have been criticized on the grounds of being ill‐defined and often not being comparable across studies (Bergeron, Baeta, Pelletier, Réale, & Garant, 2011; Moyes et al., 2009; Wilson & Nussey, 2010); however, when properly defined and interpreted they do provide insight into the biology of life‐history trade‐offs and costs of reproduction (Bridger, Bonner, & Briffa, 2015; Hamel, Cote, Gaillard, & Festa‐Bianchet, 2009; Hamel, Gaillard, Festa‐Bianchet, & Cote, 2009; Hassall, Sherratt, Watts, & Thompson, 2015; Tettamanti, Grignolio, Filli, Apollonio, & Bize, 2015). For example, in mountain goats ( Oreamnos americanus ), reproductive costs on future reproduction only became apparent after accounting for variation in a quality index based on covariation among longevity, success in the last breeding opportunity, adult mass, and social rank (Hamel, Cote et al., 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2009), Hamel, Cote et al. (2010) and according to recommendations of Wilson and Nussey (2010) and Bergeron et al. (2011), individual quality may be defined as a covariation among life‐history traits at the individual scale, resulting in heterogeneity among individual performances within a population that are consistent throughout life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2011), individual quality may be defined as a covariation among life‐history traits at the individual scale, resulting in heterogeneity among individual performances within a population that are consistent throughout life. Although quality is often measured using a single life‐history trait (e.g., longevity, reproductive effort or success) or phenotypic trait, predicted to be linked to performance (e.g., body mass), two putative traits indexing quality might only be weakly correlated (Moyes et al., 2009; Wilson & Nussey, 2010) making preferable the use of several phenotypic traits (Bergeron et al., 2011; Wilson & Nussey, 2010), for instance by the means of multivariate analysis (see Hamel, Cote et al., 2009; Hamel, Gaillard et al., 2009 for examples).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual quality and age but not environmental or social conditions modulate costs of reproduction in a capital breeder

Debeffe

Poissant

McLoughlin

2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Costs associated with reproduction are widely known to play a role in the evolution of reproductive tactics with consequences to population and eco‐evolutionary dynamics. Evaluating these costs as they pertain to species in the wild remains an important goal of evolutionary ecology. Individual heterogeneity, including differences in individual quality (i.e., among‐individual differences in traits associated with survival and reproduction) or state, and variation in environmental and social conditions can modulate the costs of reproduction; however, few studies have considered effects of these factors simultaneously. Taking advantage of a detailed, long‐term dataset for a population of feral horses (Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada), we address the question of how intrinsic (quality, age), environmental (winter severity, location), and social conditions (group size, composition, sex ratio, density) influence the costs of reproduction on subsequent reproduction. Individual quality was measured using a multivariate analysis on a combination of four static and dynamic traits expected to depict heterogeneity in individual performance. Female quality and age interacted with reproductive status of the previous year to determine current reproductive effort, while no effect of social or environmental covariates was found. High‐quality females showed higher probabilities of giving birth and weaning their foal regardless of their reproductive status the previous year, while those of lower quality showed lower probabilities of producing foals in successive years. Middle‐aged (prime) females had the highest probability of giving birth when they had not reproduced the year before, but no such relationship with age was found among females that had reproduced the previous year, indicating that prime‐aged females bear higher costs of reproduction. We show that individual quality and age were key factors modulating the costs of reproduction in a capital breeder but that environmental or social conditions were not, highlighting the importance of considering multiple factors when studying costs of reproduction.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual quality and age but not environmental or social conditions modulate costs of reproduction in a capital breeder

Debeffe

Poissant

McLoughlin

2017

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Instead of the expected negative correlation between current and future reproductive success, however, several studies found no or positive correlations (review in Hamel et al 2010b). Reproductive costs may be masked by individual heterogeneity in resource acquisition/allocation (Cam et al 2002, Hamel et al 2009, Wilson and Nussey 2009. Therefore, the covariation between current and future reproductive success depends on the magnitude of both reproductive cost and individual heterogeneity (Wilson and Nussey 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-specific reproductive success and cost in female Alpine ibex

et al. 2014

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In female mammals, reproduction requires high energy expenditure because of gestation and lactation, possibly leading to a fitness cost. Several studies, however, failed to find the expected negative correlation between current and future reproductive success, likely because of individual heterogeneity in reproductive potential. We compared reproductive performance and costs of reproduction for 40 female Alpine Ibex in one established population with 29 females translocated from the same population to a new colony. We investigate factors affecting pregnancy, fecundity and overwinter survival of juveniles, after accounting for individual heterogeneity. In both populations, prime-aged females experienced a strong reproductive cost. Senescent females, however, showed no evidence of reproductive costs. The colonizing population showed lower reproductive cost and better age-specific reproductive performance than the established population.We found a general pattern of low age-specific fecundity and reproductive success that was affected by environmental constraints. Age-specific reproductive success was unrelated to longevity.Although about 84% of adult females appeared to conceive, independently of environmental constraints, energy was allocated to reproduction in a highly conservative manner, leading to low age-specific fecundity (only 36 and 21% of prime-aged and senescent females were seen with a kid) but high kid survival (100% to weaning and 92% to 1 year). Our results suggest that females embarked in lactation only if they had a very high probability of raising their offspring. Our study highlights how reproductive performance and costs in this species vary with age and environment, and are the result of a highly conservative reproductive tactic.

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Individual heterogeneity in life‐history trade‐offs with age at first reproduction in capital breeding elephant seals

et al. 2019

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Recruitment age plays a key role in life‐history evolution. Because individuals allocate limited resources among competing life‐history functions, theory predicts trade‐offs between current reproduction and future growth, survival and/or reproduction. Reproductive costs tend to vary with recruitment age, but may also be overridden by fixed individual differences leading to persistent demographic heterogeneity and positive covariation among demographic traits at the population level. We tested for evidence of intra‐ and inter‐generational trade‐offs and individual heterogeneity relating to age at first reproduction using three decades of detailed individual life‐history data of 6,439 capital breeding female southern elephant seals. Contrary to the predictions from trade‐off hypotheses, we found that recruitment at an early age was associated with higher population level survival and subsequent breeding probabilities. Nonetheless, a survival cost of first reproduction was evident at the population level, as first‐time breeders always had lower survival probabilities than prebreeders and experienced breeders of the same age. However, models accounting for hidden persistent demographic heterogeneity revealed that the trade‐off between first reproduction and survival was only expressed in “low quality” individuals, comprising 35% of the population. The short‐term somatic costs associated with breeding at an early age had no effect on the ability of females to allocate resources to offspring in the next breeding season. Our results provide strong evidence for individual heterogeneity in the life‐history trajectories of female elephant seals. By explicitly modeling hidden persistent demographic heterogeneity we show that individual heterogeneity governs the expression of trade‐offs with first reproduction in elephant seals.

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What is individual quality? An evolutionary perspective

Cited by 360 publications

References 60 publications

Individual quality and age but not environmental or social conditions modulate costs of reproduction in a capital breeder

Individual quality and age but not environmental or social conditions modulate costs of reproduction in a capital breeder

Age-specific reproductive success and cost in female Alpine ibex

Individual heterogeneity in life‐history trade‐offs with age at first reproduction in capital breeding elephant seals

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