Individual life histories: neither slow nor fast, just diverse

TY - JOUR

T1 - Individual life histories

T2 - neither slow nor fast, just diverse

AU - Van de Walle, Joanie

AU - Fay, Rémi

AU - Gaillard, Jean-Michel

AU - Pelletier, Fanie

AU - Hamel, Sandra

AU - Gamelon, Marlène

AU - Barbraud, Christophe

AU - Blanchet, F. Guillaume

AU - Blumstein, Daniel T.

AU - Charmantier, Anne

AU - Delord, Karine

AU - Larue, Benjamin

AU - Martin, Julien

AU - Mills, James A.

AU - Milot, Emmanuel

AU - Mayer, Francine M.

AU - Rotella, Jay

AU - Saether, Bernt-Erik

AU - Teplitsky, Céline

AU - van de Pol, Martijn

AU - Van Vuren, Dirk H.

AU - Visser, Marcel E.

AU - Wells, Caitlin P.

AU - Yarrall, John

AU - Jenouvrier, Stéphanie

N1 - Data archiving: Dryad

PY - 2023/7/5

Y1 - 2023/7/5

N2 - The slow–fast continuum is a commonly used framework to describe variation in life-history strategies across species. Individual life histories have also been assumed to follow a similar pattern, especially in the pace-of-life syndrome literature. However, whether a slow–fast continuum commonly explains life-history variation among individuals within a population remains unclear. Here, we formally tested for the presence of a slow–fast continuum of life histories both within populations and across species using detailed long-term individual-based demographic data for 17 bird and mammal species with markedly different life histories. We estimated adult lifespan, age at first reproduction, annual breeding frequency, and annual fecundity, and identified the main axes of life-history variation using principal component analyses. Across species, we retrieved the slow–fast continuum as the main axis of life-history variation. However, within populations, the patterns of individual life-history variation did not align with a slow–fast continuum in any species. Thus, a continuum ranking individuals from slow to fast living is unlikely to shape individual differences in life histories within populations. Rather, individual life-history variation is likely idiosyncratic across species, potentially because of processes such as stochasticity, density dependence, and individual differences in resource acquisition that affect species differently and generate non-generalizable patterns across species.

AB - The slow–fast continuum is a commonly used framework to describe variation in life-history strategies across species. Individual life histories have also been assumed to follow a similar pattern, especially in the pace-of-life syndrome literature. However, whether a slow–fast continuum commonly explains life-history variation among individuals within a population remains unclear. Here, we formally tested for the presence of a slow–fast continuum of life histories both within populations and across species using detailed long-term individual-based demographic data for 17 bird and mammal species with markedly different life histories. We estimated adult lifespan, age at first reproduction, annual breeding frequency, and annual fecundity, and identified the main axes of life-history variation using principal component analyses. Across species, we retrieved the slow–fast continuum as the main axis of life-history variation. However, within populations, the patterns of individual life-history variation did not align with a slow–fast continuum in any species. Thus, a continuum ranking individuals from slow to fast living is unlikely to shape individual differences in life histories within populations. Rather, individual life-history variation is likely idiosyncratic across species, potentially because of processes such as stochasticity, density dependence, and individual differences in resource acquisition that affect species differently and generate non-generalizable patterns across species.

U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2023.0511

DO - 10.1098/rspb.2023.0511

M3 - Article

SN - 0962-8452

VL - 290

JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

IS - 2002

M1 - 20230511

ER -