Behaviour by a parent affecting offspring survival or development, including provisioning, defence and control of the developmental environment. Its costs and benefits need separate measurement.
Care supplied by both parents. It can create shared offspring benefits alongside conflict over which parent bears the costs.
Conditional adjustment of care in response to a partner, offspring or the environment. A matching response can reflect information about brood demand rather than absence of conflict.
An increase in care following a partner’s reduction that replaces less than the entire lost contribution. The predicted response depends on information, costs and the time available to adjust.
An allocation to current offspring that carries an opportunity cost for other reproductive opportunities. Time spent near offspring is not automatically an investment of the same value in both sexes.
Reproductive allocation is the distribution of resources and effort among reproductive activities, offspring and future opportunities. Investing more in one component can reduce resources for another. An allocation trade-off concerns limited resources rather than an assumption that every observed correlation is causal.
Information concerning the probability that offspring are genetically sired by a male. Its effect on care depends on detection, future mating opportunities and effects on offspring, not only average extra-pair paternity.
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