Department of Vertebrate Zoology and Ecology, M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119899

Abstract

A scheme of relationships among life-history characters is developed on assumptions of determinate growth and dependence of juvenile mortality on the specific growth rate. It is shown that constraints on the relative neonate size, (Wo/W(), and minimum value of the biotic potential, (rmax), lead to "triangular" shape of life history set on the plain defined by juvenile and adult mortality. This completely coincides with the Ramensky-Grime (C-S-R) classification of life-history strategies. Phylogenetic constraints can reduce this set to a relatively narrow r/K-continuum specifically oriented for a certain taxon. Similar restrictions generate models of life history optimization which predict interspecific allometries between life-history traits.