Course: Life History

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Course title Life History
Course code EKO/PGSLH
Organizational form of instruction Lecture
Level of course Doctoral
Year of study not specified
Semester Winter and summer
Number of ECTS credits 5
Language of instruction Czech, English
Status of course unspecified
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 course aims at presenting actual information and procedures from the branch. Major approaches, conceptual and theoretical topics are listed in syllabus.
Knowledge Identity the basic life-history traits and trade-offs Describe evolution of the basic life-history traits and trade-offs
Prerequisites
The students passed the exam from population ecology.

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.
  • Caswell H. (2001). Matrix Population Models.
  • Falconer DS. (1993). Introduction to quantitative genetics.
  • Krebs J. R. & Davies N. B. (1993). An introduction to behavioural ecology.
  • 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.
  • 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