Costs of immunity are widely believed to play an important role in life history evolution, but
most studies of ecological immunology have considered only single aspects of immune …

Animal hosts defend themselves against parasites by the antibodies produced by an
immune system. It is an inherent assumption that parasites constitute the selection pressure …

If immune functions confer obvious benefits to hosts, life-history theory assumes that they
also induce costs, leading to trade-offs between immunity and other fitness components …

There has been considerable recent interest in the effects of life-history decisions on
immunocompetence in birds. If immunocompetence is limited by available resources, then …

Life-history traits and secondary sexual characters often demonstrate condition-
dependence, and reproductive success thus ultimately appears to be determined by …

A central assumption in ecological immunology is that immune responses are costly, with
costs manifesting directly (eg, increases in metabolic rate and increased amino acid usage) …

Summary 1 It has been suggested that immune defences are shaped by life history and
ecology, but few general patterns have been described across species. We hypothesized …

Immune responses have evolved to defend hosts efficiently against the debilitating effects of
parasites on host fitness. However, there are relatively few studies of the efficiency of the …

Activating the immune system has associated fitness costs, both immediate costs in the form
of reduced current reproduction and long-term costs in the form of reduced life span and …

Ecological immunology aims to explain variation among hosts in the strength and efficacy of
immunological defenses. However, a shortcoming has been the failure to link host immune …