A tradeoff between robustness to environmental fluctuations and speed of evolution

The ability of a species to cope with both long-term and short-term environmental fluctuations might vary with the species' life history. While some life-history characteristics promote large and stable population sizes despite interannual environmental fluctuations, other life-history strategies might allow to evolve quickly in response to long-term gradual changes. In a theoretical study, we show that there is a tradeoff between both properties. Life-history characteristics that promote fast rates of evolution come at the expense of a poor response to short-term environmental fluctuations, and vice versa. We demonstrated the presence of this tradeoff by the use of a mathematical analysis and individual-based simulations.