Body size, mass and condition can affect an organism’s ability to cope with variation in resource availability or metabolic demand, particularly as juveniles reach independence. It follows that changes to parental provisioning efficiency (size and frequency of meals) through intraspecific competition or environmental conditions that affect prey availability may affect...
Age variation in reproductive performance is well-documented but the mechanisms underlying this variation remain unclear. Foraging efficiency is likely to be a key source of demographic variation as it determines the amount of energy that can be invested in fitness-related activities. Evidence of age related changes in the foraging efficiency...
A fundamental objective of ecology and population biology is to identify factors that drive population dynamics and determine the population-level consequences of their interaction with the environment. Studies of reproductive performance can illuminate population dynamic processes, including the links between organismal biology, the environment, and life history theory. A central...
Understanding the factors that contribute to or limit reproductive success is a fundamental objective of the field of ecology, providing insight into the ways ecosystems function and facilitating better management of natural resources. Behaviors that benefit offspring often increase costs to parents, and thus parents must adjust their level of...
Sexually size-dimorphic species must show some difference between the sexes in growth rate and/or length of growing period. Such differences in growth parameters can cause the sexes to be impacted by environmental variability in different ways, and understanding these differences allows a better understanding of patterns in productivity between individuals...