LO10 Identify the research question and objective of studies…
LO10 Identify the research question and objective of studies in relation to an ecological principle Here is a paragraph of a study that looked at reproductive behavior of blue-footed boobies “According to life history theory, trade-offs between growth, somatic maintenance and reproduction will occur throughout an individual’s life, affecting its fitness. Longitudinal studies of diverse taxa have shown that reproductive success, physiological function and survival tend to vary across the lifespan in a distinctive inverted-U pattern. This suggests that fitness components first increase with age and experience, then decline progressively with senescence (old age). In addition, long-lived species are expected to maximise lifetime fitness by strategically adjusting their reproductive effort and related behaviours across their lifetime. However, there is division of opinion over whether members of long-lived species maximise lifetime fitness by increasing or reducing reproductive effort toward the end of the lifespan. (…) We investigated possible change across the lifespan in parental behaviour (by measuring nest defense across the life span of individuals). ” What is the most likely research question addressed by this study?