Among-strain consistency in the pace and shape of senescence in duckweed

1.Comparative studies have demonstrated extensive variation in age-trajectories of mortality and fecundity, both within and among species, with many taxa exhibiting a general pattern of age-related demographic decline referred to as senescence. Whereas a considerable body of theory is devoted to explaining the origin and persistence of senescence, the evolutionary forces underlying variation in demographic trajectories more generally remain poorly understood.

2.Studying variation in demographic trajectories is complicated by the fact that different species (or even different populations of a given species) may live and reproduce on different time scales, which, for comparative purposes, can make it challenging to disentangle patterns of age-related demographic change (the shape of demographic age trajectories) from the time scale on which those changes happen (the pace of demographic age trajectories).

3.Here we examine variation in the pace and shape of demographic trajectories a...