A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
The evolution of fitness in life-history theory
Authors: Brommer JE
Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
Publication year: 2000
Journal:Biological Reviews
Journal name in sourceBIOLOGICAL REVIEWS OF THE CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
Journal acronym: BIOL REV
Volume: 75
Issue: 3
First page : 377
Last page: 404
Number of pages: 28
ISSN: 0006-3231
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S000632310000551X
Abstract
Theory concerning the evolution of life history (the schedule of reproduction and survival) focuses on describing the life history which maximises fitness. Although there is an intuitive link between life history and fitness, there are in fact several measures of the 'black box' concept of fitness. There has been a debate in the bio-mathematical literature on the predictive difference between the two most commonly used measures; intrinsic rate of increase, and net reproductive ratio R-0. Although both measures aim to describe fitness, models using one of the measures may predict the opposite of similar models using the other measure, which is clearly undesirable. Here, I review the evolution of these fitness measures over the last four decades, the predictive differences between these measures and the resulting shift of the fitness concept. I focus in particular on some recent developments, which have solved the dilemma of predictive differences between these fitness measures by explicitly acknowledging the game-theoretical nature of life-history evolution.
Theory concerning the evolution of life history (the schedule of reproduction and survival) focuses on describing the life history which maximises fitness. Although there is an intuitive link between life history and fitness, there are in fact several measures of the 'black box' concept of fitness. There has been a debate in the bio-mathematical literature on the predictive difference between the two most commonly used measures; intrinsic rate of increase, and net reproductive ratio R-0. Although both measures aim to describe fitness, models using one of the measures may predict the opposite of similar models using the other measure, which is clearly undesirable. Here, I review the evolution of these fitness measures over the last four decades, the predictive differences between these measures and the resulting shift of the fitness concept. I focus in particular on some recent developments, which have solved the dilemma of predictive differences between these fitness measures by explicitly acknowledging the game-theoretical nature of life-history evolution.
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