The concept that in certain (K-selected) populations, life history is centered around producing relatively few offspring that have a good chance of survival.
Natural selection that occurs in populations near the carrying capacity (K) of the environment. Usually causes a species that produces few young with substantial resource investment by the parents; parents care for the young until they mature. (K-selected, adj.)
K-selected species reproduce slowly. They produce altricial offspring requiring a long time to maftire. R-selected species reproduce quickly and have many offspring. They produce many precocial offspring that quickly mature. K-selection and r-selection are relative terms. Prosimians are more r-selected than apes but ants are much more r-selected than prosimians.
A reproductive strategy where survival of a species is optimized by placing a premium on individual survival despite fluctuations of the environment. Favors large animals (and large animals favor this strategy) -- animals that get pregnant more than once and the offspring of which require postnatal care before sexual maturity is reached. Spacing of pregnancy is important for survival of mother and offspring, and thus favors the evolution of a genetic basis for subfertility -- an intriguing notion that's the theme of WebPage 2. The opposite reproductive strategy to r-selection. The word comes from the environment's Karrying capacity.
The environment favors species with lower growth potential but greater capabilities for utilizing scarce resources.
seleccion K] "Brooders", those animals that have few offspring, but take care of them to help insure survival.