TRAJECTORIES OF MORTALITY AND REPRODUCTION IN A NATURAL POPULATION

描述：（改编自申请书）：在这个项目中，这位研究者的早期工作挑战了长期以来人们对人口老龄化的看法。大规模的实验研究表明，对于五个物种来说，随着年龄的增长，死亡率会下降。需要确定这些结论的普遍性，以及反映在个人生命过程动态中的这些死亡模式的原因。植物物种车前草（Plantago lanceolata）提供了一个独特的实验系统，以监测在进化力量已经作用了几代人的条件下的大量个体。本研究旨在确定生命后期死亡率轨迹的细节，以确定死亡率是否在自然人群中发生减速。此外，有了每个个体特定年龄的道德和繁殖的信息，这些调查人员将能够确定生活史的细节，包括死亡率和繁殖之间的相关性，以及繁殖和生长之间的特定年龄分配区间。这些数据还将用于检验当前关于衰老的进化理论的假设。此外，这个实验系统给我们提供了一个独特的机会，利用保存完好的个体的基因克隆来完成我们对生命过程动态的分析，以确定是否有独特的因素促成了“最长寿的老人”的非凡寿命。

DESCRIPTION: (adapted from the application): The earlier work of this investigator, within this Program Project, challenges long-held beliefs about the demography of aging. The large scale experimental studies have shown that for five species, mortality decelerates at older ages. The generality of these conclusions, and the causes of these mortality patterns as reflected in individual life-course dynamics, needs to be determined. The plant species Plantago lanceolata offers a unique experimental system to monitor a large population of individuals under the conditions which evolutionary forces have been acting on for generations. This study is designed to determine the details of the mortality trajectory late in life in order to identify whether mortality deceleration occurs in a natural population. In addition, with information on age-specific morality and reproduction for each individual, these investigators will be able to determine details of the life history including the correlations between mortality and reproduction, and the age- specific allocation panems between reproduction and growth. This data will also be used to test assumptions of the current evolutionary theories of senescence. In addition, this experimental system allows us the unique opportunity to use genetic clones of preserved individuals to complete our analysis of the life-course dynamics in order to determine if there are unique factors which contribute to the extraordinary longevity of the 'oldest-old'.