- gestation
- brooding
- lactation
- feeding
- protection
- nest maintenance
- teaching
- colony provisioning
Operational definition
Life-history allocation state; revised title.
Resources expended after fertilization, propagule formation, birth, hatching, or equivalent reproductive initiation in order to increase offspring survival, development, or future performance.
It includes:
- gestation;
- brooding;
- lactation;
- feeding;
- guarding;
- nest maintenance;
- teaching;
- colony provisioning.
“Post-reproductive investment” is avoided because that phrase can instead mean a period after the organism has ceased reproducing.