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Semelparity and iteroparity

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Semelparity and iteroparity are two contrasting reproductive strategies available to living organisms. A species is considered semelparous if it is characterized by a single reproductive episode before death, and iteroparous if it is characterized by multiple reproductive cycles over the course of its lifetime. Iteroparity can be further divided into continuous iteroparity (primates including humans and chimpanzees) and seasonal iteroparity (birds, dogs, etc.) Some botanists use the parallel terms monocarpy and polycarpy. (See also plietesials.)

In truly semelparous species, death after reproduction is part of an overall strategy that includes putting all available resources into maximizing reproduction, at the expense of future life (see § Trade-offs). In any iteroparous population there will be some individuals who die between their first and second reproductive episodes, but unless this is part of a syndrome of programmed death after reproduction, this would not be called semelparity.

This distinction is also related to the difference between annual and perennial plants. An annual is a plant that completes its life cycle in a single season, and is usually semelparous. Perennials live for more than one season and are usually (but not always) iteroparous.[1]

Semelparity and iteroparity are not, strictly speaking, alternative strategies, but extremes along a continuum of possible modes of reproduction. Many organisms considered to be semelparous can, under certain conditions, separate their single bout of reproduction into two or more episodes.[2][3]

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Botany

Botany

Botany, also called plant science(s), plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning "pasture", "herbs" "grass", or "fodder"; βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, "to feed" or "to graze". Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants, and approximately 20,000 are bryophytes.

Plietesials

Plietesials

Plietesials are plants that grow for a number of years, flower gregariously (synchronously), set seed and then die. The length of the cycle can vary between 8 and 16 years. For example, the neelakurinji plant flowers every 12 years and bloomed as expected in 2006 and 2018 in the Munnar region of Kerala, India.

Annual plant

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary according to geographical location, and may not correspond to the four traditional seasonal divisions of the year.

Perennial plant

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs, which are also technically perennials.

Overview

Semelparity

Pacific salmon are examples of semelparous organisms
Pacific salmon are examples of semelparous organisms

The word semelparity was coined by evolutionary biologist Lamont Cole,[4] and comes from the Latin semel 'once, a single time' and pario 'to beget'. This differs from iteroparity in that iteroparous species are able to have multiple reproductive cycles and therefore can mate more than once in their lifetime. Semelparity is also known as "big bang" reproduction, since the single reproductive event of semelparous organisms is usually large as well as fatal.[5] A classic example of a semelparous organism is Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), which lives for many years in the ocean before swimming to the freshwater stream of its birth, spawning, and dying. Other semelparous animals include many insects, including some species of butterflies, cicadas, and mayflies, many arachnids, and some molluscs such as some species of squid and octopus.

Semelparity also occurs in smelt and capelin, but is very rare in vertebrates other than bony fish. In amphibians, it is known only among some Hyla frogs including the gladiator frog;[6] in reptiles only a few lizards such as Labord's chameleon of southwestern Madagascar,[7] Sceloporus bicanthalis of the high mountains of Mexico,[8] and some species of Ichnotropis from dry savanna areas of Africa.[9] Among mammals, it exists only in a few didelphid and dasyurid marsupials.[10] Annual plants, including all grain crops and most domestic vegetables, are semelparous. Long-lived semelparous plants include century plant (agave), Lobelia telekii, and some species of bamboo.[11]

This form of lifestyle is consistent with r-selected strategies as many offspring are produced and there is low parental input, as one or both parents die after mating. All of the male's energy is diverting into mating and the immune system is repressed. High levels of corticosteroids are sustained over long periods of time. This triggers immune and inflammatory system failure and gastrointestinal hemorrhage, which eventually leads to death.[12]

Iteroparity

An iteroparous organism is one that can undergo many reproductive events throughout its lifetime. The pig is an example of an iteroparous organism
An iteroparous organism is one that can undergo many reproductive events throughout its lifetime. The pig is an example of an iteroparous organism

The term iteroparity comes from the Latin itero, to repeat, and pario, to beget. An example of an iteroparous organism is a human—humans are biologically capable of having offspring many times over the course of their lives.

Iteroparous vertebrates include all birds, most reptiles, virtually all mammals, and most fish. Among invertebrates, most mollusca and many insects (for example, mosquitoes and cockroaches) are iteroparous. Most perennial plants are iteroparous.

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Mayfly

Mayfly

Mayflies are aquatic insects belonging to the order Ephemeroptera. This order is part of an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies. Over 3,000 species of mayfly are known worldwide, grouped into over 400 genera in 42 families.

Octopus

Octopus

An octopus is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda. The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like other cephalopods, an octopus is bilaterally symmetric with two eyes and a beaked mouth at the center point of the eight limbs. The soft body can radically alter its shape, enabling octopuses to squeeze through small gaps. They trail their eight appendages behind them as they swim. The siphon is used both for respiration and for locomotion, by expelling a jet of water. Octopuses have a complex nervous system and excellent sight, and are among the most intelligent and behaviourally diverse of all invertebrates.

Capelin

Capelin

The capelin or caplin is a small forage fish of the smelt family found in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Arctic oceans. In summer, it grazes on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin also eat a great deal of krill and other crustaceans. Among others, whales, seals, Atlantic cod, Atlantic mackerel, squid and seabirds prey on capelin, in particular during the spawning season while the capelin migrate south. Capelin spawn on sand and gravel bottoms or sandy beaches at the age of two to six years. When spawning on beaches, capelin have an extremely high post-spawning mortality rate which, for males, is close to 100%. Males reach 20 cm (8 in) in length, while females are up to 25.2 cm (10 in) long. They are olive-coloured dorsally, shading to silver on sides. Males have a translucent ridge on both sides of their bodies. The ventral aspects of the males iridesce reddish at the time of spawn.

Amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Thus amphibians typically start out as larvae living in water, but some species have developed behavioural adaptations to bypass this.

Hyla

Hyla

Hyla is a genus of frogs in the tree frog family Hylidae. As traditionally defined, it was a wastebasket genus with more than 300 species found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and across the Americas. After a major revision of the family, most of these have been moved to other genera so that Hyla now only contains 17 extant (living) species from Europe, northern Africa and Asia. The earliest known fossil member of this genus is †Hyla swanstoni from the Eocene of Saskatchewan, Canada, but its designation to Hyla happened before the major revision, meaning that its position needs confirmation.

Labord's chameleon

Labord's chameleon

Labord's chameleon is a semelparous species of chameleon, a lizard in the family Chamaeleonidae. The species is endemic to Madagascar.

Madagascar

Madagascar

Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar is a sovereign island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa across the Mozambique Channel. At 592,800 square kilometres (228,900 sq mi), it is the world's second-largest island country, after Indonesia. Its capital and largest city is Antananarivo.

Ichnotropis

Ichnotropis

Ichnotropis is a genus of African lizards in the family Lacertidae. Species in the genus Ichnotropis are commonly called rough-scaled lizards.

Dasyuridae

Dasyuridae

The Dasyuridae are a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, including 71 extant species divided into 17 genera. Many are small and mouse-like or shrew-like, giving some of them the name marsupial mice or marsupial shrews, but the group also includes the cat-sized quolls, as well as the Tasmanian devil. They are found in a wide range of habitats, including grassland, underground, forests, and mountains, and some species are arboreal or semiaquatic. The Dasyuridae are often called the 'marsupial carnivores', as most members of the family are insectivores.

Agave

Agave

Agave is a genus of monocots native to the hot and arid regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, although some Agave species are also native to tropical areas of North America, such as Mexico. The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves. Agave now includes species formerly placed in a number of other genera, such as Manfreda, ×Mangave, Polianthes and Prochnyanthes.

Lobelia telekii

Lobelia telekii

Lobelia telekii is a species of flowering plant in the family Campanulaceae, that is found only in the alpine zones of Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon, and the Aberdare Mountains of East Africa. It occurs at higher altitudes on well-drained sloped hillsides. It is a semelparous species, putting all its reproductive effort into producing single large inflorescence up to 3 metres (10 ft) tall, and then dying. Inflorescences of L. telekii also possesses a large pith-volume for internal water storage and marcescent foliage which could provide insulation. It secretes a polysaccharide into this reservoir, which may be useful for its survival in the cold climate. The plant is named after the Austro-Hungarian explorer, Count Sámuel Teleki.

Bamboo

Bamboo

Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in the case of Dendrocalamus sinicus individual culms reaching a length of 151 feet, up to fourteen inches in thickness and a weight of up to 990 pounds. The internodes of bamboos can also be of great length. Kinabaluchloa wrayi has internodes up to 8.2 feet in length. and Arthrostylidium schombergkii with lower internodes up to 16 feet in length, exceeded in length only by Papyrus. By contrast, the culms of the tiny bamboo Raddiella vanessiae of the Kaieteur Plateau in French Guiana are only 0.4–0.8 inches in length by about one-twelfth inch in width. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Dutch or Portuguese language, which originally borrowed it from Malay or Kannada.

Models

Trade-offs

It is a biological precept that within its lifetime an organism has a limited amount of energy/resources available to it, and must always partition it among various functions such as collecting food and finding a mate. Of relevance here is the trade-off between fecundity, growth, and survivorship in its life history strategy. These trade-offs come into play in the evolution of iteroparity and semelparity. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that semelparous species produce more offspring in their single fatal reproductive episode than do closely related iteroparous species in any one of theirs. However, the opportunity to reproduce more than once in a lifetime, and possibly with greater care for the development of offspring produced, can offset this strictly numerical benefit.

Models based on non-linear trade-offs

One class of models that tries to explain the differential evolution of semelparity and iteroparity examines the shape of the trade-off between offspring produced and offspring forgone. In economic terms, offspring produced is equivalent to a benefit function, while offspring forgone is comparable to a cost function. The reproductive effort of an organism—the proportion of energy that it puts into reproducing, as opposed to growth or survivorship—occurs at the point where the distance between offspring produced and offspring forgone is the greatest.[13]

Iteroparous reproductive effort
Iteroparous reproductive effort

In some situations, the marginal cost of offspring produced decreases over time (each additional offspring is less "expensive" than the average of all previous offspring) and the marginal cost of offspring forgone increases. In these cases, the organism only devotes a portion of its resources to reproduction and uses the rest for growth and survivorship so that it can reproduce again in the future.[14]

Semelparous reproductive effort
Semelparous reproductive effort

In other situations, the marginal cost of offspring produced increases while the marginal cost of offspring forgone decreases. When this is the case, it is favorable for the organism to reproduce a single time. The individual devotes all of its resources to that one episode of reproduction, then dies as it has not reserved enough resources to meet its own ongoing survival needs.

Empirical, quantitative support for this mathematical mode is limited.

Bet-hedging models

A second set of models examines the possibility that iteroparity is a hedge against unpredictable juvenile survivorship (avoiding putting all one's eggs in one basket). Again, mathematical models have not found empirical support from real-world systems. In fact, many semelparous species live in habitats characterized by high (not low) environmental unpredictability, such as deserts and early successional habitats.

Cole's paradox and demographic models

The models that have the strongest support from living systems are demographic. In Lamont Cole's classic 1954 paper, he came to the conclusion that:

For an annual species, the absolute gain in intrinsic population growth which could be achieved by changing to the perennial reproductive habit would be exactly equivalent to adding one individual to the average litter size.[15]

For example, imagine two species—an iteroparous species that has annual litters averaging three offspring each, and a semelparous species that has one litter of four, and then dies. These two species have the same rate of population growth, which suggests that even a tiny fecundity advantage of one additional offspring would favor the evolution of semelparity. This is known as Cole's paradox.

In his analysis, Cole assumed that there was no mortality of individuals of the iteroparous species, even seedlings. Twenty years later, Charnov and Schaffer[16] showed that reasonable differences in adult and juvenile mortality yield much more reasonable costs of semelparity, essentially solving Cole's paradox. An even more general demographic model was produced by Young.[17]

These demographic models have been more successful than the other models when tested with real-world systems. It has been shown that semelparous species have higher expected adult mortality, making it more economical to put all reproductive effort into the first (and therefore final) reproductive episode.[18][19]

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Fecundity

Fecundity

Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the natural capability to produce offspring, measured by the number of gametes (eggs), seed set, or asexual propagules.

Life history theory

Life history theory

Life history theory is an analytical framework designed to study the diversity of life history strategies used by different organisms throughout the world, as well as the causes and results of the variation in their life cycles. It is a theory of biological evolution that seeks to explain aspects of organisms' anatomy and behavior by reference to the way that their life histories—including their reproductive development and behaviors, post-reproductive behaviors, and lifespan —have been shaped by natural selection. A life history strategy is the "age- and stage-specific patterns" and timing of events that make up an organism's life, such as birth, weaning, maturation, death, etc. These events, notably juvenile development, age of sexual maturity, first reproduction, number of offspring and level of parental investment, senescence and death, depend on the physical and ecological environment of the organism.

Cost

Cost

In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. In this case, money is the input that is gone in order to acquire the thing. This acquisition cost may be the sum of the cost of production as incurred by the original producer, and further costs of transaction as incurred by the acquirer over and above the price paid to the producer. Usually, the price also includes a mark-up for profit over the cost of production.

Marginal cost

Marginal cost

In economics, the marginal cost is the change in the total cost that arises when the quantity produced is incremented, the cost of producing additional quantity. In some contexts, it refers to an increment of one unit of output, and in others it refers to the rate of change of total cost as output is increased by an infinitesimal amount. As Figure 1 shows, the marginal cost is measured in dollars per unit, whereas total cost is in dollars, and the marginal cost is the slope of the total cost, the rate at which it increases with output. Marginal cost is different from average cost, which is the total cost divided by the number of units produced.

Semelparity

Semelparity in mammals

Antechinus agilis
Antechinus agilis

In Dasyuridae

Small Dasyuridae
Phascogale calura
Phascogale calura

Semelparous species of Dasyuridae are typically small and carnivorous, with the exception of the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), which is large. Species with this reproductive strategy include members of the genus AntechinusPhascogale tapoatafa and Phascogale culura. The males of all three groups exhibit similar characteristics that classify them as semelparous. First, all of the males of each species disappear immediately after the mating season. Also, males that are captured and isolated from others live for 2 to 3 years.[20] If these captured males are allowed to mate, they die immediately after the mating season, like those in the wild. Their behaviour also changes drastically before and after the mating season. Before mating, males are extremely aggressive and will fight with other males if placed close together. Males that are captured before they are allowed to mate remain aggressive through the winter months. After the mating season, if allowed to mate, males become extremely lethargic and never regain their aggressiveness even if they survive to the next mating season.[20] Other changes that occur post-mating include fur degradation and testicular degeneration. During adolescence, male fur is thick and becomes dull and thin after mating, but regains its original condition if the individual manages to survive past the mating season. The fur on the scrotum completely falls off and does not grow back, even if the male survives months after the first mating season. As the marsupial ages, its testicles grow until they reach a peak size and weight at the beginning of the mating season. After the individual mates, the weight and size of the testes and scrotum decrease. They remain small and do not produce spermatozoa later in life, if maintained in a laboratory.[20] The 1966 Woolley study on Antechinus spp. noticed that males were only able to be maintained past mating in the laboratory and no senile males were found in the wild, suggesting that all males die shortly after mating.[20]

Corticosteroid concentration and increased male mortality
Antechinus stuartii
Antechinus stuartii

Studies on Antechinus stuartii reveal that male mortality is highly correlated to stress and andrenocortical activity. The study measured the corticosteroid concentration in males in the wild, males injected with cortisol, males injected with saline, and females in the wild. While both males and females exhibit high levels of corticosteroid concentration in the wild, this proves fatal only to males due to females having a higher maximum high affinity corticosteroid binding capacity (MCBC).[21] Thus, free corticosteroid in the plasma of male A. stuartii rises sharply, while it remains constant in females. High levels of free corticosteroid, resulting from mating in wild males and injected cortisol in laboratory males, resulted in stomach ulcersgastrointestinal hemorrhaging, and liver abscesses, all of which increased mortality. These side effects were not found in the males that were injected with saline,[21] strengthening the hypothesis that high free corticosteroids results in higher mortality in male Dasyurids. A similar study on Phascogale calura showed that similar endocrine system changes happen in P. calura as A. stuartii.[22] This supports stress-induced mortality as a characteristic of small Dasyurid semelparity.

Large Dasyuridae
Dasyurus hallucatus
Dasyurus hallucatus

Dasyurus hallucatus, the northern quoll, is a large dasyurid and exhibits increased male mortality after the mating season. Unlike smaller dasyurids, male die-off in D. hallucatus is not due to endocrine system changes and there was no spermatogenic failure after the mating season ended.[12] If male D. hallucatus survive past their first mating season, they may be able to engage in a second mating season. While the individuals in a 2001 study mostly died from vehicles or predation, researchers found evidence of physiological degradation in males, similar to the physiological degradation in small dasyurids. This includes fur loss, parasite infestations, and weight loss. As the mating period went on, males became increasingly anemic, but the anemia was not due to ulceration or gastrointestinal bleeding.[12] Lack of elevated cortisol levels during mating periods in D. hallucatus means that there is no current universal explanation for the mechanism behind increased male mortality in Dasyuridae. Post-reproductive senescence has also been proposed as an explanation.[23]

In opossums

Grey slender mouse opossum (Marmosops incanus)
Marmosops incanus
Marmosops incanus

The grey slender mouse opossum exhibits a semelparous reproductive strategy in both males and females. Males disappear from their endemic area after the reproductive season (February–May). Males found months later (June–August) are of lighter body weight and the molar teeth are less worn down, suggesting these males belong to a different generation. There is a drop off in the female population, but during the months of July and August, evidence of a gap between generations like the male gap. There is also lower body weight and less molar wear observed in females found after August. This is further supported by the evidence that females that reproduce are not observed the following year.[24] This species has been compared to a related species, Marmosa robinsoni, in order to answer what would happen if a female that has reproduced were to survive to the next mating season. M. robinsoni has a monoestrus reproductive cycle, like M. incanus, and females are no longer fertile after 17 months so it is unlikely that females that survive past the drop off in female populations would be able to reproduce a second time.[24]

Gracilinanus microtarsus
Gracilinanus microtarsus
Other mouse opossums

Gracilinanus microtarsus, or the Brazilian gracile opossum, is considered to be partially semelparous because male mortality increases significantly after the mating season, but some males survive to mate again in the next reproductive cycle. The males also exhibit similar physiological degradation demonstrated in Antechinus and other semelparous marsupials such as fur loss and increase of infection from parasites.[25]

Semelparity in fish

Pacific salmon

Highly elevated cortisol levels mediate the post-spawning death of semelparous Oncorhynchus Pacific salmon by causing tissue degeneration, suppressing the immune system, and impairing various homeostatic mechanisms.[26] After swimming for such a long distance, salmon expend all of their energy on reproduction. One of the key factors in salmon rapid senescence is that these fish do not feed during reproduction so body weight is extremely reduced.[27] In addition to physiological degradation, pacific salmon become more lethargic as mating goes on, which makes some individuals more susceptible to predation because they have less energy to avoid predators.[28] This also increases mortality rates of adults post-mating.

Semelparity in insects

Gypsy Moth
Gypsy Moth

Traditionally, semelparity was usually defined within the time frame of a year. Critics of this criterion note that this scale is inappropriate in discussing patterns of insect reproduction because many insects breed more than once within one annual period, but generation times of less than one year. Under the traditional definition, insects are considered semelparous as a consequence of time scale rather than the distribution of reproductive effort over their adult life span.[29] In order to resolve this inconsistency, Fritz et al. define semelparous insects as "Insects that lay a single clutch of eggs in their lifetime and deposit them at one place are clearly semelparous or big bang reproducers. Their entire reproductive effort is committed at one time and they die shortly after oviposition".[29] Semelparous insects are found in Lepidoptera, Ephemeroptera, Dermaptera, Plecoptera, Strepsiptera, Trichoptera, and Hemiptera.

Examples in Lepidoptera

Females of certain families of Lepidoptera, like the Gypsy Moth of Psychidae, have reduced mobility or apterous so the insects' dispersal is in the larval stage, as opposed to in the adult stage. In iteroparous insects, major dispersal occurs in the adult stage. All semelparous Lepidopterans share similar characteristics: Larva only feed in restricted periods of the year because of the nutritional state of their host plants (as a result, they are univoltine), initial food supply is predictably abundant, and larval host plants are abundant and adjacent.[29] Death most commonly occurs by starvation. In the case of the gypsy moth, adults do not possess an active digestive system and cannot feed, but can drink moisture. Mating occurs fairly rapidly after adults emerge from their pupal form and, without a way to digest food, the adult moths die after about a week.[30]

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Dasyuridae

Dasyuridae

The Dasyuridae are a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, including 71 extant species divided into 17 genera. Many are small and mouse-like or shrew-like, giving some of them the name marsupial mice or marsupial shrews, but the group also includes the cat-sized quolls, as well as the Tasmanian devil. They are found in a wide range of habitats, including grassland, underground, forests, and mountains, and some species are arboreal or semiaquatic. The Dasyuridae are often called the 'marsupial carnivores', as most members of the family are insectivores.

Northern quoll

Northern quoll

The northern quoll, also known as the northern native cat, the North Australian native cat or the satanellus is a carnivorous marsupial native to Australia.

Antechinus

Antechinus

Antechinus is a genus of small dasyurid marsupial endemic to Australia. They resemble mice with the bristly fur of shrews.

Brush-tailed phascogale

Brush-tailed phascogale

The brush-tailed phascogale, also known by its Australian native name tuan, the common wambenger, the black-tailed mousesack or the black-tailed phascogale, is a rat-sized arboreal carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, characterized by a tuft of black silky hairs on the terminal portion of its tail. Males of this species do not live past the age of one, as they die after reproducing.

Brown antechinus

Brown antechinus

The brown antechinus, also known as Stuart's antechinus and Macleay's marsupial mouse, is a species of small carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. The males die after their first breeding season, and the species holds the world record for being the world's smallest semelparous mammal.

Adrenocortical hormone

Adrenocortical hormone

In humans and other animals, the adrenocortical hormones are hormones produced by the adrenal cortex, the outer region of the adrenal gland. These polycyclic steroid hormones have a variety of roles that are crucial for the body’s response to stress, and they also regulate other functions in the body. Threats to homeostasis, such as injury, chemical imbalances, infection, or psychological stress, can initiate a stress response. Examples of adrenocortical hormones that are involved in the stress response are aldosterone and cortisol. These hormones also function in regulating the conservation of water by the kidneys and glucose metabolism, respectively.

Corticosteroid

Corticosteroid

Corticosteroids are a class of steroid hormones that are produced in the adrenal cortex of vertebrates, as well as the synthetic analogues of these hormones. Two main classes of corticosteroids, glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, are involved in a wide range of physiological processes, including stress response, immune response, and regulation of inflammation, carbohydrate metabolism, protein catabolism, blood electrolyte levels, and behavior.

Blood plasma

Blood plasma

Blood plasma is a light amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but contains proteins and other constituents of whole blood in suspension. It makes up about 55% of the body's total blood volume. It is the intravascular part of extracellular fluid. It is mostly water, and contains important dissolved proteins, glucose, clotting factors, electrolytes, hormones, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. It plays a vital role in an intravascular osmotic effect that keeps electrolyte concentration balanced and protects the body from infection and other blood-related disorders.

Gastrointestinal bleeding

Gastrointestinal bleeding

Gastrointestinal bleeding, also called gastrointestinal hemorrhage (GIB), is all forms of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the rectum. When there is significant blood loss over a short time, symptoms may include vomiting red blood, vomiting black blood, bloody stool, or black stool. Small amounts of bleeding over a long time may cause iron-deficiency anemia resulting in feeling tired or heart-related chest pain. Other symptoms may include abdominal pain, shortness of breath, pale skin, or passing out. Sometimes in those with small amounts of bleeding no symptoms may be present.

Liver abscess

Liver abscess

A liver abscess is a mass filled with pus inside the liver. Common causes are abdominal conditions such as appendicitis or diverticulitis due to haematogenous spread through the portal vein. It can also develop as a complication of a liver injury.

Endocrine system

Endocrine system

The endocrine system is a messenger system comprising feedback loops of the hormones released by internal glands of an organism directly into the circulatory system, regulating distant target organs. In vertebrates, the hypothalamus is the neural control center for all endocrine systems. In humans, the major endocrine glands are the thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, pituitary gland, pineal gland, the testes (male), ovaries (female), and the adrenal glands. The hypothalamus, pancreas, and thymus also function as endocrine glands, among other functions. Other organs, such as the kidneys, also have roles within the endocrine system by secreting certain hormones. The study of the endocrine system and its disorders is known as endocrinology.

Anemia

Anemia

Anemia or anaemia is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. The name is derived from Ancient Greek: ἀναιμία anaimia, meaning 'lack of blood', from ἀν- an-, 'not' and αἷμα haima, 'blood'. When anemia comes on slowly, the symptoms are often vague, such as tiredness, weakness, shortness of breath, headaches, and a reduced ability to exercise. When anemia is acute, symptoms may include confusion, feeling like one is going to pass out, loss of consciousness, and increased thirst. Anemia must be significant before a person becomes noticeably pale. Symptoms of anemia depend on how quickly hemoglobin decreases. Additional symptoms may occur depending on the underlying cause. Preoperative anemia can increase the risk of needing a blood transfusion following surgery. Anemia can be temporary or long term and can range from mild to severe.

Evolutionary advantages to semelparity

Current evolutionary advantages hypothesis

Antechinus agilis showing offspring inside pouch
Antechinus agilis showing offspring inside pouch

The evolution for semelparity in both sexes has occurred many times in plants, invertebrates, and fish. It is rare in mammals because mammals have obligate maternal care due to internal fertilization and incubation of offspring and nursing young after birth, which requires high maternal survival rate after fertilization and offspring weaning. Also, female mammals have relatively low reproductive rates compared to invertebrates or fish because they invest a lot of energy in maternal care. However, male reproductive rate is much less constrained in mammals because only females bear young. A male that dies after one mating season can still produce a large number of offspring if he invests all of his energy in mating with many females.[31]

Evolution in mammals

Scientists have hypothesized that natural selection has allowed semelparity to evolve in Dasyuridae and Didelphidae because of certain ecological constraints. Female mammals ancestral to these groups may have shortened their mating period to coincide with peak prey abundance. Because this window is so small, the females of these species exhibit a reproduction pattern where the estrous of all females occurs simultaneously. Selection would then favor aggressive males due to increased competition between males for access to females. Since the mating period is so short, it is more beneficial for males to expend all their energy on mating, even more so if they are unlikely to survive to the next mating season.[32]

Evolution in fish

Dead salmon after spawning
Dead salmon after spawning

Reproduction is costly for anadromous salmonids because their life history requires transition from saltwater to freshwater streams and long migrations, which can be physiologically taxing. The transition between cold oceanic water to warm freshwater and steep elevation changes in Northern Pacific rivers could explain the evolution of semelparity because it would be extremely difficult to return to the ocean. A noticeable difference between semelparous fish and iteroparous salmonids is that egg size varies between the two types of reproductive strategies. Studies show that egg size is also affected by migration and body size. Egg number, however, shows little variation between semelparous and iteroparous populations or between resident and anadromous populations for females of the same body size.[33] The current hypothesis behind this reason is that iteroparous species reduce the size of their eggs in order to improve the mother's chances of survival, since she invests less energy in gamete formation. Semelparous species do not expect to live past one mating season, so females invest a lot more energy in gamete formation resulting in large eggs. Anadromous salmonids may also have evolved semelparity to boost the nutrition density of the spawning grounds. The most productive Pacific salmon spawning grounds contain the most carcasses of spawned adults. The dead bodies of the adult salmon decompose and provide nitrogen and phosphorus for algae to grow in the nutrient-poor water. Zooplankton then feed on the algae, and newly hatched salmon feed on the zooplankton.[34]

Evolution in insects

Earwig guarding eggs
Earwig guarding eggs

An interesting trait has evolved in semelparous insects, especially in those that have evolved from parasitic ancestors, like in all subsocial and eusocial aculeate Hymenoptera. This is because larvae are morphologically specialized for development within a host's innards and thus are entirely helpless outside of that environment. Females would need to invest a lot of energy in protecting their eggs and hatched offspring. They do this through such behaviours as egg guarding. Mothers that actively defend offspring, for example, risk injury or death by doing so.[35] This is not beneficial in an iteroparous species because the female risks dying and not reaching her full reproductive potential by not being able to reproduce in all reproductive periods in her lifetime. Since semelparous insects only live for one reproductive cycle, they can afford to expend energy on maternal care because those offspring are her only offspring. An iteroparous insect does not need to expend energy on the eggs of one mating period because it is likely that she will mate again. There is ongoing research in maternal care in semelparous insects from lineages not descended from parasites to further understand this relationship between semelparity and maternal care.

Discover more about Evolutionary advantages to semelparity related topics

Internal fertilization

Internal fertilization

Internal fertilization is the union of an egg and sperm cell during sexual reproduction inside the female body. Internal fertilization, unlike its counterpart, external fertilization, brings more control to the female with reproduction. For internal fertilization to happen there needs to be a method for the male to introduce the sperm into the female's reproductive tract.

Weaning

Weaning

Weaning is the process of gradually introducing an infant human or another mammal to what will be its adult diet while withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk.

Estrous cycle

Estrous cycle

The estrous cycle is the set of recurring physiological changes that are induced by reproductive hormones in most mammalian therian females. Estrous cycles start after sexual maturity in females and are interrupted by anestrous phases, otherwise known as "rest" phases, or by pregnancies. Typically, estrous cycles repeat until death. These cycles are widely variable in duration and frequency depending on the species. Some animals may display bloody vaginal discharge, often mistaken for menstruation. Many mammals used in commercial agriculture, such as cattle and sheep, may have their estrous cycles artificially controlled with hormonal medications for optimum productivity. The male equivalent, seen primarily in ruminants, is called rut.

Fish migration

Fish migration

Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousands of kilometres. Such migrations are usually done for better feeding or to reproduce, but in other cases the reasons are unclear.

Salmonidae

Salmonidae

Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon, trout, chars, freshwater whitefishes, graylings, taimens and lenoks, which are collectively known as the salmonids. The Atlantic salmon, whose Latin name became that of its genus Salmo, is also the source of the family and order names.

Spawn (biology)

Spawn (biology)

Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, to spawn refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquatic mammals and reptiles, reproduce through the process of spawning.

Algae

Algae

Algae is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as Chlorella, Prototheca and the diatoms, to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelp, a large brown alga which may grow up to 50 metres (160 ft) in length. Most are aquatic and autotrophic and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem and phloem that are found in land plants. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds, while the most complex freshwater forms are the Charophyta, a division of green algae which includes, for example, Spirogyra and stoneworts.

Zooplankton

Zooplankton

Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequently, they drift or are carried along by currents in the ocean, or by currents in seas, lakes or rivers.

Parasitism

Parasitism

Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes.

Aculeata

Aculeata

Aculeata is a subclade of Hymenoptera containing ants, bees, and stinging wasps. The name is a reference to the defining feature of the group, which is the modification of the ovipositor into a stinger. However, many members of the group cannot sting, either retaining the ovipositor, or having lost it altogether. A large part of the clade is parasitic.

Hymenoptera

Hymenoptera

Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or places that are otherwise inaccessible. This ovipositor is often modified into a stinger. The young develop through holometabolism —that is, they have a wormlike larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they mature.

Source: "Semelparity and iteroparity", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 13th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semelparity_and_iteroparity.

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See also
  • Annual plant – Plant which completes its life cycle within one growing season and then dies
  • Behavioral ecology – Study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures
  • Ecology – Study of organisms and their environment
  • Life history theory – Analytical framework to study life history strategies used by organisms
  • Perennial plant – Plant that lives for more than two years
  • r/K selection theory – Ecological theory concerning the selection of life history traits
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