Predictors of reproductive cost in female Soay sheep

Summary We investigate factors influencing the trade‐off between survival and reproduction in female Soay sheep ( Ovis aries ). Multistate capture–recapture models are used to incorporate the state‐specific recapture probability and to investigate the influence of age and ecological conditions on the cost of reproduction, defined as the difference between survival of breeder and non‐breeder ewes on a logistic scale. The cost is identified as a quadratic function of age, being greatest for females breeding at 1 year of age and when more than 7 years old. Costs, however, were only present during severe environmental conditions (wet and stormy winters occurring when population density was high). Winter severity and population size explain most of the variation in the probability of breeding for the first time at 1 year of life, but did not affect the subsequent breeding probability. The presence of a cost of reproduction was confirmed by an experiment where a subset of females was prevented from breeding in their first year of life. Our results suggest that breeding decisions are quality or condition dependent. We show that the interaction between age and time has a significant effect on variation around the phenotypic trade‐off function: selection against weaker individuals born into cohorts that experience severe environmental conditions early in life can progressively eliminate low‐quality phenotypes from these cohorts, generating population‐level effects.