Size-number trade-offs and the variation of seed size with plant resource status

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268 Scopus citations

Abstract

Develops a general treatment of the effects of parental resource status on optimal offspring size. Even when there is a resource trade-off between size and number of offspring within individuals, positive correlations between size and number may occur among individuals due to individual variation in resources. Such positive correlations imply that parental resource status affects the fitness-maximizing offspring size, in contrast to the predictions of the standard Smith-Fretwell model. Parental resource status affects the fitness-maximizing offspring size whenever the size-number fitness function is nonhomogeneous in offspring number. This condition implies some sort of density-dependent interactions among offspring, although it is possible to have either positive or negative sib interactions in fitness functions that are homogeneous in offspring number. In the latter case offspring size should be insensitive to parental resource status. -from Author

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)287-304
Number of pages18
JournalAmerican Naturalist
Volume140
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1992

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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