Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30100667›Full record

ReviewBehavioral ecology and sociobiology2018

Sex differences in life history, behavior, and physiology along a slow-fast continuum: a meta-analysis.

Maja Tarka, Anja Guenther, Petri T Niemelä, Shinichi Nakagawa, Daniel W A Noble

Open access · hybridAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Behavioral ecology and sociobiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
43citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
13.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 115 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Genetic Parameters and Sex-Specific Architecture of Observed and Latent Fertility Phenotypes in a Closed Breeding Nucleus of an Arctic Salmonid.Journal of animal breeding and genetics = Zeitschrift fur Tierzuchtung und Zuchtungsbiologie · 2026
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  15. Temperature and nutrition do not interact to shape the evolution of metabolic rate.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.

Maja Tarka *1Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Høgskoleringen 5, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.ORCID 0000-0001-9651-1101
Anja Guenther *3Department of Evolutionary Biology, Bielefeld University, Morgenbreede 45, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
Petri T Niemelä5Department of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Planegg-, Martinsried, Germany.
Shinichi Nakagawa6Ecology and Evolution Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052 Australia.
Daniel W A Noble6Ecology and Evolution Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052 Australia.
UNSW Sydney · AUBielefeld University · DELudwig-Maximilians-Universität München · DELund University · SE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis predicts that behavior and physiology covary with life history. Evidence for such covariation is contradictory, possibly because systematic sources of variation (e.g. sex) have been neglected. Sexes often experience different selection pressures leading to sex-specific allocation between reproduction and self-maintenance, facilitating divergence in life-history. Sex-specific differences in means and possibly variances may therefore play a key role in the POLS framework. We investigate whether sexes differ in means and variances along the fast-slow pace-of-life continuum for life history and physiological and behavioral traits. In addition, we test whether social and environmental characteristics such as breeding strategy, mating system, and study environment explain heterogeneity between the sexes. Using meta-analytic methods, we found that populations with a polygynous mating system or for studies conducted on wild populations, males had a faster pace-of-life for developmental life-history traits (e.g., growth rate), behavior, and physiology. In contrast, adult life-history traits (e.g., lifespan) were shifted towards faster pace-of-life in females, deviating from the other trait categories. Phenotypic variances were similar between the sexes across trait categories and were not affected by mating system or study environment. Breeding strategy did not influence sex differences in variances or means. We discuss our results in the light of sex-specific selection that might drive sex-specific differences in pace-of-life and ultimately POLS.

Indexed as

Life historyPace-of-lifePace-of-life syndromePhenotypic variationSexual dimorphismSexual selection

Identifiers

PMID30100667
PMCPMC6060830
OpenAlexW2884287441

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.