Final answer:
Habitats that fluctuate or are short-lived favor r-selected strategists, which are organisms that produce many offspring with little parental care. They're adapted to environments that are unstable and unpredictable, in contrast to K-selected strategists that thrive in stable conditions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Habitats that are variable in time or short-lived will favor r-selected strategists. These organisms are adapted to unstable and unpredictable environments, often characterized by having a high reproductive rate, producing many small offspring with minimal parental care. Conversely, K-selected strategists are adapted to stable, predictable environments and typically have fewer, larger offspring with significant parental investment. Examples of r-selected species include marine invertebrates like jellyfish and plants like dandelions. Understanding the reproductive strategies of organisms, such as their life history characteristics including birth rates and age at first reproduction, is crucial as these evolve to adapt to specific environmental conditions.
Population ecologists describe a continuum of life history strategies with K-selected and r-selected species on opposite ends. These strategies are not fixed and can evolve independently, resulting in species having characteristics that may trend toward one strategy over the other. The evolutionary adaptations in reproductive strategies allow species to maximize their success in various ecological contexts, from areas with significant human alteration to those with low levels of disturbance.