Berlin 2012 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 18: Posters: Statistical Physics in Biological Systems
BP 18.9: Poster
Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A
The effect of metabolic theory on life histories — •Yixian Song1, Stefan Scheu3, and Barbara Drossel2 — 1Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany — 2Institute for Condensed Matter Physics at Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany — 3J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology at Georg-August University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
We explore the consequences of metabolic theory on life histories and life history evolution. We use a mathematical model for an iteroparous species and its resources, taking into account the allometric scaling of consumption, metabolism and mortality with consumer body mass. Mortality is assumed to be density-dependent, and the dynamics of resources are explicitly modeled. We find that populations that have more or faster growing resources have a shorter life span and a higher mortality, and that populations with a larger adult biomass have a larger number of offspring per female and a larger biomass density. When we allow the adult body mass to evolve, it increases with time without limits. When we allow the offspring body mass to evolve, it becomes smaller. Both trends result from the allometric scaling of mortality and are kept in limits by trade-offs other than those included in our model.