1. Why are trade-offs among life history traits so commonly observed?

2. Using Grime’s categorization of plant life history traits, why might ruderals spread via easily dispersed seeds whereas stress tolerators spread vegetatively?

3. Why should organisms with low annual survival rates begin to reproduce at an early age?

4. Explain why organisms face a fundamental trade-off between growth and fecundity?

5. Compare and contrast semelparous and iteroparous life history strategies.

6. Why might natural selection act more strongly on traits that improve reproductive success early in life rather than later in life?

7. Give two reasons why an individual could face a trade-off between offspring number and offspring size.

8. What is the mechanism by which parental care can increase current fitness but decrease later fitness?

9. Why might an organism use cues such as photoperiod to predict the future state of its environment?

10. In terms of environmental cues, explain why many species of plants flower earlier in association with warmer spring temperatures whereas other species of spring plants do not?