A COMPARISON OF INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN LIFE-HISTORY AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN ANIMALS

Abstract
The current study tests the hypothesis that life-history traits (closely related to fitness) show greater inbreeding depression than morphological traits (less closely related to fitness). The mean and median slope of the standardized coefficient of inbreeding depression (the slope of the linear relationship between F and the trait value) for life-history and morphological traits were compared. Slopes for life-history traits were higher than those for morphological traits. At F = 0.25 (full-sibling mating), life-history traits experienced a median reduction of 11.8% in trait value, whereas morphological traits showed a depression in trait value of approximately 2.2%.