Peterson Charles H
Institute of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 28557, Morehead City, NC, USA.
Oecologia. 1983 May;58(2):164-168. doi: 10.1007/BF00399212.
Quantitative reproductive senility occurs when older age classes achieve less reproductive effort than expected from the allometric (power) curve relating body size to reproductive effort among younger adults. Quantitative senility can be detected by analyzing whether age explains any of the residual variance around the linear regression of log reproductive effort on log body size among all adults. In each of two collections of m. mercenaria made early in successive (1980 and 1981) breeding seasons, variation in mass of gonads (reproductive effort) was better explained by clam length than by clam age, and age failed to explain a significant amount of residual variance in the regression of log gonad mass on log body length. Among M. mercenaria from North Carolina (USA) up to age 19, there is no evidence of either absolute or quantitative reproductive senility.
当老年个体的繁殖投入低于根据年轻成年个体身体大小与繁殖投入之间的异速生长（幂）曲线所预期的水平时，就会出现定量繁殖衰老。通过分析年龄是否能解释所有成年个体中对数繁殖投入与对数身体大小线性回归周围的任何剩余方差，可检测到定量衰老。在连续两个繁殖季节早期（1980年和1981年）采集的两批商业珠蚌中，性腺质量（繁殖投入）的变化用蛤长度比用蛤年龄能更好地解释，并且年龄未能解释对数性腺质量与对数体长回归中的大量剩余方差。在美国北卡罗来纳州年龄达19岁的商业珠蚌中，没有绝对繁殖衰老或定量繁殖衰老的证据。
