In this paper we compare a general size-structured population model, where a size-structured consumer feeds upon an unstructured resource, to its simplified stage-structured counterpart in terms of equilibrium stability. Stability of the size-structured model is understood in terms of an equivalent delayed system consisting of a renewal equation for the consumer population birth rate and a dela...

“We’re related to the grass”, our biology teacher once proclaimed in his South Tyrolean accent that was at the same time unmistakable and highly liable to impersonation. Our 14-year-old, hormone-clouded minds can perhaps be forgiven for not immediately fathoming the profound scientifi c truth behind this statement, but looking back now, it stuck as poignant way of encapsulating what is perhaps ...

The nature of weeds is a complex adaptive, soil-seed communication system. The nature of weedy Setaria life history is an adaptable, changeable system in which complex behaviors emerge when self-similar plant components self-organize into functional traits possessing biological information about spatial structure and temporal behavior. The nature of the weedy Setaria is revealed in the physical...

Morphological evolution is influenced by a wide variety of processes, at levels that likely range from molecules to communities, or even ecosystems. The relative contributions of these processes and other biological properties to morphological evolution in individual lineages, and their ultimate role in mediating the evolutionary success of these groups, remain fundamental problems in evolution...

We describe the impact of recent life-history plasticity theory on insect studies, particularly on the interface between genetics and plasticity. We focus on the three-dimensional relationship between three key life-history traits: adult size (or mass), development time and growth rate, and the connections to life cycle regulation, host plant choice, and sexual selection in seasonal environment...

The maintenance of genetic variation is a long-standing issue because the adaptive value of life-history strategies associated with each genetic variant is usually unknown. However, evidence for the coexistence of alternative evolutionary fixed strategies at the population level remains scarce. Because in the tawny owl (Strix aluco) heritable melanin-based coloration shows different physiologic...