Accelerated reproduction is not an adaptive response to early-life adversity in wild baboons
| Autor: | Chelsea J Weibel, Elizabeth A. Archie, Susan C. Alberts, Jenny Tung |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Male life history Evolution media_common.quotation_subject Longevity Social Sciences Animals Wild early-life adversity Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences 03 medical and health sciences Predictive adaptive response Animals Longitudinal Studies Prospective Studies 030304 developmental biology media_common Expectancy theory 0303 health sciences Multidisciplinary Natural selection Reproductive success Reproduction Adaptive response internal predictive adaptive response model Biological Sciences Adaptation Physiological Kenya Early life fitness Anthropology Female Psychosocial Demography Papio adaptive developmental plasticity |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| ISSN: | 1091-6490 |
| Popis: | Significance If an individual can anticipate an early death, should they also “live fast”? Fast reproduction is often proposed to be an adaptive response to harsh conditions in early life because early adversity predicts shorter lifespans. Individuals who speed up reproduction after experiencing early adversity might therefore have higher fitness than those who do not. Here, we use extensive data on wild female baboons to test if fast reproduction offers fitness advantages to females who experience nutritional and psychosocial sources of early adversity. Contrary to several influential hypotheses, females who experienced early adversity did not improve their fitness if they sped up reproduction. Our results raise doubts that accelerated reproduction is an adaptive response to early adversity in long-lived, slow-reproducing species. In humans and other long-lived species, harsh conditions in early life often lead to profound differences in adult life expectancy. In response, natural selection is expected to accelerate the timing and pace of reproduction in individuals who experience some forms of early-life adversity. However, the adaptive benefits of reproductive acceleration following early adversity remain untested. Here, we test a recent version of this theory, the internal predictive adaptive response (iPAR) model, by assessing whether accelerating reproduction following early-life adversity leads to higher lifetime reproductive success. We do so by leveraging 48 y of continuous, individual-based data from wild female baboons in the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya, including prospective, longitudinal data on multiple sources of nutritional and psychosocial adversity in early life; reproductive pace; and lifetime reproductive success. We find that while early-life adversity led to dramatically shorter lifespans, individuals who experienced early adversity did not accelerate their reproduction compared with those who did not experience early adversity. Further, while accelerated reproduction predicted increased lifetime reproductive success overall, these benefits were not specific to females who experienced early-life adversity. Instead, females only benefited from reproductive acceleration if they also led long lives. Our results call into question the theory that accelerated reproduction is an adaptive response to both nutritional and psychosocial sources of early-life adversity in baboons and other long-lived species. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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