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for academic year 2025/2026
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Course: Life History Theory

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Course title Life History Theory
Course code EKO/ZHIO
Organizational form of instruction Lecture
Level of course Master
Year of study not specified
Semester Summer
Number of ECTS credits 3
Language of instruction Czech
Status of course Compulsory-optional
Form of instruction Face-to-face
Work placements This is not an internship
Recommended optional programme components None
Lecturer(s)
  • Tkadlec Emil, prof. MVDr. CSc.
Course content
Evolution by natural selection, group selection, biotic adaptations, evidence for evolution, transformism. Adaptation, constraint, adaptationism. Phenotypic plasticity, continuous variation in characters, causes. Phenotypic and genotypic value, average effect of a gene, breeding value, additive genetic variation. Heritability and estimation methods. Trade-off and optimization. Cost of reproduction, residual reproductive value. Lack's hypothesis on the most productive clutch size. Age at first reproduction. Reproductive strategies and effort. Semelpary a iteropary, Cole's paradox. Variation in sex ratio, Fisher's principle, Kolman's and Verner's hypotheses. Trivers-Willard model. LMC, LRC, LRE models. Evolution of aging (senescence). Demography and matrix models, sensitivity, elasticity. Evolution of cooperation, Hamilton's rule, eusociality. ESS, game theory, prisoner's dilemma.

Learning activities and teaching methods
Lecture
Learning outcomes
The objective of the course is to give students an overview of modern life-history theory through selected topics. As part of the course, students will acquire the skill to handle matrix models in analysis of sensitivity.
Knowledge Identity the basic life-history traits and trade-offs Describe evolution of the basic life-history traits and trade-offs
Prerequisites
unspecified
EKO/EKPOK
----- or -----
EKO/EKPOP

Assessment methods and criteria
Mark, Oral exam

Exam - good knowledge and orientation in modern theory of life histories on selected subjects
Recommended literature
  • BULMER, M. (1994). Theoretical evolutionary Ecology.. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.
  • Bulmer M. (1994). Theoretical evolutionary ecology.. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates.
  • Caswell H. (2001). Matrix population models.. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publisher.
  • Charnov, E.L. (1993). Life History Invariants.. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 167 pp.
  • Charnov, E.L. (1982). The Theory of Sexual Allocation.. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
  • Krebs JR, Davies NB. (1993). An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology.. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 420 pp.
  • Ridley, M. (1993). Evolution.. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 670 pp.
  • ROFF, D.A. (1992). The evolution of life histories. Theory and analysis.. Chapman & Hall, New York.
  • STEARNS, S.C. (1992). The Evolution of Life Histories.. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • Tkadlec E. Populační ekologie: struktura, růst a dynamika populací.


Study plans that include the course
Faculty Study plan (Version) Category of Branch/Specialization Recommended year of study Recommended semester
Faculty: Faculty of Science Study plan (Version): Ecology and Environmental Protection (2021) Category: Ecology and environmental protection 1 Recommended year of study:1, Recommended semester: Summer
Palacký University Olomouc, date of update: 03.11.2025 23:58. Data created for academic year 2025/2026