Furthermore, to evaluate female investment in reproduction, we calculated reproductive allocation by dividing offspring weight by the sum of offspring weight plus somatic dry weight [ 95].
In fisheries, intensively harvested wild populations have repeatedly evolved smaller body size, younger age at first reproduction, and higher reproductive allocation (Jørgensen et al. 2007; Dunlop et al. 2009; Sharpe and Hendry 2009).
However, due to 'unconscious selection' (Darwin 1859) of traits genetically correlated with increased stem allocation, female and male threshold sizes for reproduction were both increased and male and female reproductive allocation decreased in the selected group.
However, reproductive allocation itself is also molded by tradeoffs between selection for reproduction and selection for mobility required in foraging and escaping predators [62], [63].
We analyzed ecological and historical factors that may affect differences in reproductive allocation (mean litter size in relation to mean adult female body mass) and help explain why different brown bear populations react differently to conservation measures.
Other reasons why differences in reproductive allocation are smaller than expected, or even absent, may be "the currency" used to estimate allocation (carbon or nutrients) and methods of estimation of reproductive allocation (biomass, respiration or photosynthesis).
Independently of assessing differential reproductive allocation, some studies have shown that male plants of several dioecious species exhibit greater growth than female plants [21] [23].
Life-history theory predicts that if variation in resource availability is predictable, or depends on age, plasticity of reproductive allocation should be selected for [1].
Currently, it is unclear why the introduction of extra-metabolic energy to the total energy budgets of industrial humans alters their reproductive allocation patterns, which in natural-fertility populations follow energy-based life history rules [26].
