Question

Solidago populations Old field O Prairie (mature) A Oak woods A Prairie (disturbed) Number of seeds per stem 1024 101 102 103 10* Mean weight (ug) of single seed within a population Body mass (9) 1.01 & ¿ ¿ 10 12 14 Litter size (number of offspring) 16 18

using the figures what conclusion can you make about reproductive trade off

Answer 1

In both the the cases Weight / Mass determines the size of the reproduction size (population).

The Figures reflect that the weight is inversely proportional to dispersal of seeds from solidago plant. The lesser the weight of the seeds on the stem the more numbers of seeds are reproduced hence a greater / wider the dispersal area of seeds leading to more propogation. The most successfull propogation is observed the average weight of the seeds is seen when the seed weight is between 10^2 and 10^3. Also the weight of the seeds determines the numbers of seeds on a stem, and is also inversely.proportional to weight the of the seed to the number of seeds on the stem.

In case of the second example the litter size also is determined by the mass of individual offspring of the litter. The larger the litter size the less in the mean mass of the single offspring of the litter.

Considering the above two examples the trade of is that larger reporduction population size is inversely proportional to the weight of individual in the reproduction sample