Individual Growth and Reproduction

Abstract

This chapter develops descriptions of how individuals grow and reproduce. More specifically, the chapter seeks to determine the growth and reproduction rates from the consumption rate, by developing an energy budget of the individual as a function of size. To that end, the chapter addresses the question of how an individual makes use of the energy acquired from consumption. It sets up the energy budgets of individuals by formulating the growth model using so-called life-history invariants, which are parameters that do not vary systematically between species. While the formulation of the growth model in terms of life-history invariants is largely successful, there is in particular one parameter that is not invariant between life histories: the asymptotic size (maximum size) of individuals in the population. This parameter plays the role of a master trait that characterizes most of the variation between life histories.