Reproductive value (population genetics)
Reproductive value is a concept in demography and population genetics that represents the discounted number of future female children that will be born to a woman of a specific age. Ronald Fisher first defined reproductive value in his 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection where he proposed that future offspring be discounted at the rate of growth of the population; this implies that sexually reproductive value measures the contribution of an individual of a given age to the future growth of the population.Definition
Consider a species with a life history table with survival and reproductive parameters given by and, where
and
In a population with a discrete set of age classes, Fisher's reproductive value is calculated as
where is the long-term population growth rate given by the dominant eigenvalue of the Leslie matrix. When age classes are continuous,
where is the intrinsic rate of increase or Malthusian growth rate.
