Topic: semelparity and iteroparity
Difficulty: medium
A mature female sockeye salmon swims up to 5000 km from her Pacific Ocean feeding ground to the mouth of a coastal river in British Columbia and then another 1000 km upstream to her spawning ground. Once there, she lays thousands of eggs in her single reproductive event and promptly dies. The salmon's reproductive life history is

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The description of the salmon's reproductive life history suggests that it only reproduces once in its lifetime and then dies, which is the definition of semelparity. Semelparity is a reproductive strategy in which organisms have a single reproductive event before dying. Therefore, the salmon is an example of a semelparous organism.

Topic: Semelparity and Iteroparity