Measures of fitness and demographic stability.
Open Access
- 1 January 1977
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 74 (1) , 384-386
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.74.1.384
Abstract
The concepts of entropy and reproductive potential of a genotype were introduced in a previous paper [Demetrius, L. (1974) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 71, 4645-4647] and an analoge of the fundamental theorem of natural selection was derived. This paper relates to entropy of a population with the rate of convergence of the population to the stable age distribution. I show that (i) at maximal entropy, no oscillatory components exist and the birth sequence is unaffected by perturbations in the stable age distribution; and (ii) at zero entropy, oscillatory components occur and increase as rapidly as the real exponential component in the birth sequence. These results have implications towards (i) the relation between population fitness and adaptedness, (ii) modes of selection and the evolution of reproductive strategies, and (iii) the evolution of senescence.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Demographic Parameters and Natural SelectionProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1974
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- PLEIOTROPY, NATURAL SELECTION, AND THE EVOLUTION OF SENESCENCEEvolution, 1957