Evolutionary biology: mortality and lifespan

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Citation: Abrams, Peter A. (2004) Evolutionary biology: mortality and lifespan. Nature (Volume 431) (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Evolutionary biology: mortality and lifespan
Tagged: uw-madison (RSS), wisconsin (RSS), sociology (RSS), demography (RSS), prelim (RSS), qual (RSS), WisconsinDemographyPrelimAugust2009 (RSS)

Summary

"Extrinsic" mortality is environmentally caused mortality. When extrinsic mortality is high (e.g. from predators), low intrinsic mortality rates are traded for high reproduction. Senescence (age-related survival or reproduction) occurs partly b/c the body uses its energy for repair in a long intrinsic lifespan rather than reproduction. Thus, if there is high extrinsic mortality, there is low investment in repair. But: High extrinsic mortality leads to slow population growth, and therefore, lower intrinsic mortality. Also, if high levels of repair increase the chance of survival from extrinsic factors, evolution selects on repair.


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