Life History Trade-offs

Animals have evolved diverse life history strategies to maximize fitness. These strategies represent combinations of physiology, behavior, and morphology adapted for a given environment and often represent trade-offs between risk and reward. My research compares inter- and intraspecific variation in life history patterns and the trade-offs associated with different strategies by integrating data from wild animal handling, biologging instruments, morphometrics, and tissue sampling.

Findings:

• Northern elephant seals exhibit sex-specific foraging strategies, differing in all ecological and physiological metrics and foraging in different marine ecosystems.

• Males adopt a high-risk, high-reward foraging strategy compared to females, and these strategies evolved to maximize reproductive success.

• Niche divergence plays an important role in the persistence of sexual dimorphism in northern elephant seals.

• Seals from northern colonies have higher foraging success, while seals from southern colonies appear to be reaching their physiological limits during the at-sea trips.