I remember reading about tradeoffs last semester in my ecology course and it interested me. In chapter 10 of our textbook, it goes into more detail about trade offs and adaptive evolution. A tradeoff is an inescapable compromise between one trait and another. There are many factors that limit adaptive evolution, some being tradeoffs, functional constraints, and lack of genetic variation. Many examples of tradeoffs are mentioned throughout this chapter. For examples, in fruit bats and flying fox bats, large testes help bats win at sperm competition but oppose metabolic costs that lead to the evolution of smaller brains. Another examples of a tradeoff used in this chapter can be seen in the tropical plant Begonia involucrata. Upon researching mimicry between female and male plants, Schemske and Agren discovered a tradeoff: the larger the female flowers on an inflorescence, the fewer flowers there are. Tradeoffs can be found everywhere. A few examples that I found using the almighty Google are some organisms tend to be move slower so that they can have a larger body size. Another example I found can be seen in the male peacock. His brightly colored tail may be great for attracting a females for mating, but his bright tail will also easily attract a predator.
Visit these links for more detailed examples of biological tradeoff:
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/suppl.1/8649.full
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15266369
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