The 3 Strategies of survial

K- Strategist

• Stable environments are labelled by species with a K-strategy

Such animals tend to large, long-lived and invest a large amount of energy into rearing their offspring ensuring they have a higher survival rate.

Elephants are within the  K -species as they rear for their young to induce a higher survival rate therefore most of their energy is placed into that instead of surviving the unstable conditions they have adapted to K-strategist.

Population levels tend to remain stable

(More related to mortality then environmental influences)

R- Strategist

• Fluctuating Environments are labelled by species in the R-strategy

These tend to be small, short-lived species. whom invest all their energy in producing more offspring then the K species, the population density can get low due to parental care being minimum.



Mice are within the R-strategy as they have so many offspring that minimum care can be giving to all off the offspring from the mother therefore she actually produces a low density due to deaths at young ages.

Low survival rates but tend to maximum use of temporary environments

A table showing the Differences between R and K;

 

Table show the differences between R and K

The graph above shows lifespans of fish which is a R species therefore has a short lifespan but higher density (Blue line) and Dugongs which is a K species which population level tends to remain high therefore it lives longer (red line)

Bet-Hedging

• Bet-hedging strategies alter strategies according to their environment

some spread their life histories over variables time periods, others respond to their environments by laying eggs and then moving on.





the graph above shows how bet hedging works the growth of the plants is unpredictable by fitness as the plant is using mechanisms of change to survive in unpredictable circumstances.

PESTS! - MAINLY R-STRATEGISTS.