Final answer:
A Type III survivorship curve displays high mortality rates among the young with a significant increase in survival for those who reach maturity, common in species like trees and marine invertebrates that produce many offspring and provide minimal parental care.
Step-by-step explanation:
A Type III survivorship curve is characterized by a high death rate among young individuals within a species, where many offspring do not survive to adulthood. In contrast, the few individuals that do survive past their early years have a much greater chance of living to a relatively old age. This type of survivorship curve is often seen in species that produce large numbers of offspring but provide very little or no parental care after birth. For instance, many trees and marine invertebrates exhibit a Type III survivorship curve, as they release a high number of seeds or larvae, but only a small percentage of these survive due to factors such as predation and competition.
Survivorship curves are important tools for population ecologists as they illustrate the distribution of individuals in a population across different age intervals. By analyzing these curves, scientists can infer the life history strategies of species and understand how they have adapted to their environment.