Life history traits refer to a set of traits which affect an organism’s reproductive or survival potential. Life history is usually denoted by:

L (x) = represents the change to survive to age x

M (x) = represents the fecundity functions mainly of the form fecundity a [size] ^b)

r= represents the intrinsic growth rate (a fitness measure.

Life history traits directly participate in population dynamics that, as a result, contributes to the biological community structure.

Life history traits are all about strategy and attempts to answer questions on whether it is better to invest in growth, survival or fecundity. Since fecundity increases with growth, it is usually a god idea to invest in growth during the time when mortality is usually low. The environment carrying capacity has an effect on the intrinsic increase rate of the population. For instance, shelter, energy, nutrient availability, refuge from predator and water can limit a population. The rate of increase often decreases as the population approaches its carrying capacity since they are no ample resources that can sustain the population.

Some of the characteristics that affect life history traits include

1. Ageing and reproductive lifespan
2. The age of the initial reproductive event
3. Size and the number of the offspring’s

Variations in the above mentioned traits exhibit divergent allocations of individual resources such as effort, energy expenditure and time to the competing functions. For any particular individual, the available resources in a specific environment are usually predetermined.   Time, energy, and nutrients often limit the reproductive potential of all organisms. Animals and plants whose young are subject to high rates of mortality usually produce vast small offspring numbers. For instance, birds that have larger broods lack more prominent secondary sexual traits (one). Life history traits shall in some instance, change as per the population density. This is attributed to the verity that genotypes that have the highest fitness at high densities have at low densities the highest fitness.

According to XXX Predation, can have an effect on the life history traits through natural selection. Mortality often increases in the event that a predator capture and encounters more food which is most likely to occur if the population density rises. When predation reduces the population, the predator shall move to another prey, which is higher in density. Other conditions like the environment’s stability shall contribute to the selection of some life history characteristics. According to experiments carried out by Rose and Charlesworth, it was discovered that unstable environments selector for flies having higher fecundity and lifespan, in conditions that are unreliable, it is better for an organism to breed abundantly and early than wasting resources so as to promote its survival.

A wide array of factors can determine the evolution of life history of an organism and more so the unpredictability of the environment. An environment that is an unpredictable one- through which hazards, resources, as well as, competitors might change- rapidly selects organisms which can produce more offspring during the early stages of their lives. This is based on the verity that certain organisms shall survive so as to reproduce again, and the rate of mortality might be used as the indicator of the life history of the species. Organisms with higher rates of mortality usually mature earlier compared to the species that have low rates of mortality. An environment that is highly unpredictable can also lead to plasticity through which organism can change to suit the particular environment.