Abstract

Reproduction is a defining process of biological systems. Every generation, across all species, breeding females repopulate ecosystems with offspring. r/K selection was the first theory to classify animal species by linking the rates with which breeding females repopulated ecosystems, to the stability of ecosystems. Here, I introduce a species classification scheme that extends the reach of r-K selection and CSR selection by linking breeder investments in offspring quantity, quality, and diversity to specific natural selection pressures. The species classification scheme is predicated on the assumption that high rates of predation favor breeders that invest more in offspring quantity than quality; and that spatiotemporal scarcity favors breeders that investment more in offspring quality than quantity. I present equations that convert the species classification scheme into a maternal risk-management model. Thereafter, using the equations, I classify eighty-seven animal species into the model’s natural selection categories. Species of reptiles, fish, and marine invertebrates clustered in the predation selection category. Species of birds and mammals clustered in the scarcity selection category. Several species of apex predators clustered in the weak selection category. Several species of social insects and social mammals clustered in the convergent selection category. In summary, by acknowledging breeding females as the individuals upon which natural selection acts to repopulate ecosystems with offspring, the proposed maternal risk-management model offers a testable, theoretical framework for the field of ecology.

Highlights

  • Just as cells are the basic unit of life, species are the basic unit by which we classify life

  • At one end of the theoretical continuum, stable ecosystems favored the evolution of K-selected species, in which breeders invested more in offspring quality than quantity, resulting in slow population growth

  • At the other end of the continuum, unstable ecosystems favored the evolution of r-selected species, in which breeders invested more in offspring quantity than quality, resulting in rapid population growth

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Summary

Introduction

Just as cells are the basic unit of life, species are the basic unit by which we classify life. High rates of offspring mortality in predation selection environments favor breeders that invest more in offspring quantity than quality.

Results
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