Practice question

“0.3” for for a species with 1000 individuals at age 0 and 300 surviving at age 1, lx at age 1 is. This relationship follows from the ecological mechanism represented by the terms in the item, not merely from an association between their names. Survivorship curves summarize age-specific mortality: Type I concentrates loss late in life, Type II approximates a constant hazard, and Type III concentrates loss early. They are empirical patterns, not rigid taxonomic rules. The remaining alternatives—“0.1”, “0.5”, “0.8”—refer to different states, processes, or scales and therefore do not express the same causal relationship. Selection favors the schedule that increases lifetime reproductive success under local mortality and resource conditions. Body size, development time, fecundity, parental investment, and generation length consequently tend to covary. Field observations could test this account by measuring the proposed driver and the demographic or ecosystem response while controlling plausible confounding factors.