Parental age effects and the evolution of senescence in Lemna minor

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dc.contributor.authorBarks, Patrick M.
dc.contributor.supervisorLaird, Robert A.
dc.date.accessioned2015-04-29T20:59:48Z
dc.date.available2015-04-29T20:59:48Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.degree.levelPh.Den_US
dc.description.abstractSenescence is characterized by age-related deterioration within individual organisms and a resultant decline in rates of survival or reproduction. Such declines seem inherently maladaptive, but occur nonetheless in a wide range of species. My thesis contributes to the questions of (i) why senescence is common in nature, and (ii) why patterns of senescence sometimes vary markedly both within and among species. With respect to why senescence is common, most evolutionary theory on senescence makes the simplifying assumption that all offspring are of equal quality. I show that this assumption does not hold in the aquatic plant Lemna minor, and develop a theoretical model to investigate how age-related declines in offspring quality influence the ‘force’ of natural selection. With respect to variation in patterns of senescence, I describe a common garden experiment demonstrating a high degree of among-population consistency in life expectancy and rates of senescence in L. minor.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10133/3666
dc.language.isoen_CAen_US
dc.proquest.subject0329en_US
dc.proquest.subject0719en_US
dc.proquest.subject0309en_US
dc.proquestyesYesen_US
dc.publisherLethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Biological Sciencesen_US
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Biological Sciencesen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArts and Scienceen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesThesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science)en_US
dc.subjectage-related declinesen_US
dc.subjectLemna minoren_US
dc.subjectoffspring qualityen_US
dc.subjectsenescenceen_US
dc.titleParental age effects and the evolution of senescence in Lemna minoren_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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