Explaining the optimality of U-shaped age-specific mortality

Theoretical Population Biology
C Y Cyrus ChuRonald D Lee

Abstract

Mortality is U-shaped with age for many species, declining from birth to sexual maturity, then rising in adulthood, sometimes with postreproductive survival. We show analytically why the optimal life history of a species with determinate growth is likely to have this shape. An organism allocates energy among somatic growth, fertility and maintenance/survival at each age. Adults may transfer energy to juveniles, who can then use more energy than they produce. Optimal juvenile mortality declines from birth to maturity, either to protect the increasingly valuable cumulative investments by adults in juveniles or to exploit the compounding effects of early investment in somatic growth, since early growth raises subsequent energy production, which in turn supports further growth. Optimal adult mortality rises after maturity as expected future reproduction declines as in Hamilton, but intergenerational transfers lead to postreproductive survival as in Lee. Here the Hamilton and transfer effects are divided by probabilities of survival in contrast to the fitness impact measures, which are relevant for mutation-selection balance. If energetic efficiency rises strongly with adult experience, then adult mortality could initially be flat o...Continue Reading

References

Nov 22, 1994·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·B Charlesworth
Mar 25, 1993·Nature·L Partridge, N H Barton
Jul 25, 2003·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Ronald D Lee
May 12, 2004·Theoretical Population Biology·James W VaupelJutta Gampe
Jan 13, 2006·Theoretical Population Biology·C Y Cyrus Chu, Ronald D Lee
Feb 14, 2006·The American Naturalist·Marc Mangel, Stephan B Munch

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Citations

May 7, 2008·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Ronald Lee
Dec 3, 2010·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Daniel A Levitis
Jun 16, 2012·Theoretical Population Biology·C Y Cyrus Chu, Ronald D Lee
Jul 4, 2012·Experimental Gerontology·Ronald Lee, C Y Cyrus Chu
Jan 11, 2011·Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization·C Y Cyrus ChuRonald D Lee
May 15, 2013·Population and Development Review·Ronald Lee
Oct 1, 2011·Current Biology : CB·James Holland Jones
Mar 26, 2010·Nature·James W Vaupel
Apr 12, 2017·Demography·Michal EngelmanRavi Varadhan

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