When infant mortality is high individuals should invest in survival.

When adult mortality is high individuals should invest in reproduction.

Question

When infant mortality is high individuals should invest in survival.

When adult mortality is high individuals should invest in reproduction.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question presents a life-history style trade-off idea: when certain mortality pressures are high, where should an individual allocate their reproductive or survival effort?

Option 1: 'When infant mortality is high individuals should invest in survival.' This interpretation would mean individuals prioritize their own somatic maintenance and longevity to buffer against early-life deaths. However, when infant mortality is high, selection generally favors strategies that increase offspring survival or accelerate offspring development rather than focusing primarily on the parent's long-term survival. In many life-history frameworks, high early-life mortality shifts investment toward traits that enhance early reproduction or parental care to boost offspring viability, rather than extending the parent's own lifespan as the primary strategy. Therefore, this option is not the most consistent with classic life-history reasoning about infant mortality.

Option 2: 'When adult mortality is high individuals should invest in reproduction.' This aligns with the well-known principle that higher extrinsic mortality in adulthood selects for faster life histories: individuals should reproduce earlier and potentially invest more in current reproduction at the expense of long-term somatic investment, since the chance of surviving to older ages is reduced. In other words, when adults are likely to die sooner, maximizing immediate reproductive output becomes more advantageous than investing heavily in survival traits that would pay off only later. Thus, this option fits the expected pattern under high adult mortality.

In summary, the first option proposes a strategy (increasing personal survival) that is less favored when infant mortality is high, whereas the second option adopts the conventional view that elevated adult mortality shifts focus toward earlier or greater reproduction. The reasoning for each reflects standard life-history trade-offs between survival investments and reproductive effort under different mortality regimes.

BIOL 1001 (090-095) Unit 4.1 Learning Quiz: Evolutionary ecology of aging

When infant mortality is high individuals should invest in survival. When adult mortality is high individuals should invest in reproduction.

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