Individuals and populations: the role of long-term, individual-based studies of animals in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Many important questions in ecology and evolutionary biology can only be answered with data that extend over several decades and answering a substantial proportion of questions requires records of the life histories of recognisable individuals. We identify six advantages that long-term, individual based studies afford in ecology and evolution: (i) analysis of age structure; (ii) linkage between life history stages; (iii) quantification of social structure; (iv) derivation of lifetime fitness measures; (v) replication of estimates of selection; (vi) linkage between generations, and we review their impact on studies in six key areas of evolution and ecology. Our review emphasises the unusual opportunities and productivity of long-term, individual-based studies and documents the important role that they play in research on ecology and evolutionary biology as well as the difficulties they face.
Clutton-Brock
Tim
T
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, CB2 3EJ. thcb@cam.ac.uk
Sheldon
Ben C
BC
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods*; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D010641:Phenotype; D011153:Population; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012744:Sex Ratio; D012919:Social Behavior; D013997:Time Factors