Which strategy is most energy-efficient over long lifespans?
Iteroparity spreads reproductive effort across many breeding events and is usually favored when adults have a reasonable chance of surviving between seasons. A long-lived organism can reproduce repeatedly without paying the extreme one-time cost associated with semelparity, while also buffering failure in any single year. Calling it energy-efficient is shorthand for allocating resources over time, not a claim that repeated breeding has no energetic cost. Life-history traits should be interpreted as correlated tendencies rather than rigid packages. Adult survival, juvenile mortality, body size,
Ref: Ecology: Concepts and Applications, Molles, 9th Ed., Ch. 12