scholarly journals Within and among-population variation in vital rates and population dynamics in a variable environment

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Vincenzi ◽  
Marc Mangel ◽  
Dusan Jesensek ◽  
John Carlos Garza ◽  
Alain J Crivelli

Understanding the causes of within- and among-population differences in vital rates, life histories, and population dynamics is a central topic in ecology. To understand how within- and among-population variation emerges, we need long-term studies that include episodic events and contrasting environmental conditions, data to characterize individual and shared variation, and statistical models that can tease apart population-, shared-, and individual contribution to the observed variation. We used long-term tag-recapture data and novel statistical and modeling techniques to investigate and estimate within- and among-population differences in vital rates, life histories and population dynamics of marble trout Salmo marmoratus, a endemic freshwater salmonid with a narrow range. Only ten populations of pure marble trout persist in headwaters of Alpine rivers in western Slovenia. Marble trout populations are also threatened by floods and landslides, which have caused the extinction of two populations in recent years. We estimated and determined causes of variation in growth, survival, and recruitment both within and among populations, and evaluated trade-offs between them. Specifically, we estimated the responses of these traits to variation in water temperature, density, sex, early life conditions, and the occurrence of extreme climatic events (e.g., flash floods and debris flows). We found that the effects of population density on traits were mostly limited to the early stages of life and that individual growth trajectories were established early in life. We found no clear effects of water temperature on survival and recruitment. Population density varied over time, with flash floods and debris flows causing massive mortalities and threatening population persistence. Apart from flood events, variation in population density within streams was largely determined by variation in recruitment, with survival of older fish being relatively constant over time within populations, but substantially different among populations. Marble trout show a fast to slow continuum of life histories, with slow growth associated with higher survival at the population level, possibly determined by food conditions and age at maturity. Our work provides unprecedented insight into the causes of variation in vital rates, life histories, and population dynamics in an endemic species that is teetering on the edge of extinction.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Vincenzi ◽  
Alain J Crivelli ◽  
Dusan Jesensek ◽  
Ellen Campbell ◽  
John C Garza

AbstractInvasions occurring in natural environments provide the opportunity to study how vital rates change and life histories evolve in the presence of a competing species. In this work, we estimate differences in reproductive traits, individual growth trajectories, survival, life histories, and population dynamics between a native species living in allopatry and in sympatry with an invasive species of the same taxonomic Family. We used as a model system marble trout Salmo marmoratus (native species) and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (non-native) living in the Idrijca River (Slovenia). An impassable waterfall separates the stream in two sectors only a few hundred meters apart: a downstream sector in which marble trout live in sympatry with rainbow trout and a upstream sector in which marble trout live in allopatry. We used an overarching modeling approach that uses tag-recapture and genetic data (> 2,500 unique marble and rainbow trout were sampled and SNP-genotyped) to reconstruct pedigrees, test for synchrony of population dynamics, and model survival and growth while accounting for individual heterogeneity in performance. The population dynamics of the two marble trout populations and of rainbow trout were overall synchronous. We found higher prevalence of younger parents, higher mortality, and lower population density in marble trout living in sympatry with rainbow trout than in marble trout living in allopatry. There were no differences in the average individual growth trajectories between the two marble trout populations. Faster life histories of marble trout living in sympatry with rainbow trout are consistent with predictions of life-history theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Teresa CIOMMI ◽  
laria ZAMBON ◽  
Luca SALVATI

Under the hypothesis that modifications in municipal boundaries and creation (or suppression) of new administrative units reflect a progressive adjustment toward a more balanced distribution of population over space, the present study investigates the long-term relationship (1928-2012) between urban expansion, population dynamics and municipal area in a growing metropolitan region (Athens, Greece). In expanding regions, municipal size is a key variable outlining the amount and spatial concentration of services and infrastructures, resulting to be functionally related to population density, agglomeration factors, land availability to building and characteristic socioeconomic profiles of local communities. A statistical analysis of the relationship between population density and municipal area provides basic knowledge to policy and planning adjustments toward a more balanced spatial distribution of population and land among the local government units. Descriptive statistics, mapping, correlation analysis and linear regressions were used to assess the evolution of such relationship over a sufficiently long time period. The average municipal area in Athens decreased moderately over time, with a slight increase in spatial heterogeneity. Conversely, the average population density per municipality increased more rapidly, with a considerable reduction in spatial heterogeneity. The observed goodness-of-fit of the linear relationship between population density and municipal area increased significantly over time. The empirical results of our study indicate that municipal size has progressively adjusted to population density across metropolitan areas, determining a more balanced spatial distribution of the resident population, which was consolidated by the recent administrative reform of the local authorities in Greece (the so called ‘Kallikratis’ law). Such conditions represent a base for the informed analysis of the spatial structure of local administrative units and they contribute to the debate on the optimal size of municipalities and other administrative districts with relevant impact on both urban and metropolitan scales of governance.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Vincenzi ◽  
Dusan Jesensek ◽  
Alain J. Crivelli

AbstractDespite the widespread recognition of the importance of monitoring, only a few studies have investigated how estimates of vital rates and predictions of population dynamics change with additional data collected along the monitoring program. We investigate how using the same models estimates of survival, individual growth, along with predictions about future population size change with additional years of monitoring and data collected, using as a model system freshwater populations of marble (Salmo marmoratus), rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) living in Western Slovenian streams. Fish were sampled twice a year between 2004 and 2015. We found that in 3 out of 4 populations, a few years of data (3 or 4 sampling occasions, between 300 and 500 tagged individuals for survival, 100 to 200 for growth) provided the same estimates of average survival and growth as those obtained with data from more than 15 sampling occasions, while the estimation of the range of survival required more sampling occasions (up to 22 for marble trout), with little reduction of uncertainty around the point estimates. Predictions of mean density and variation in density over time did not change with more data collected after the first 5 years (i.e., 10 sampling occasions) and overall were within 10% of the observed mean and variation in density over the whole monitoring program.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 2086-2102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Vincenzi ◽  
Marc Mangel ◽  
Dusˇan Jesensˇek ◽  
John C. Garza ◽  
Alain J. Crivelli

Author(s):  
Arthur M. Spickett ◽  
Gordon J. Gallivan ◽  
Ivan G. Horak

The study aimed to assess the long-term population dynamics of questing Rhipicephalus appendiculatus and Rhipicephalus zambeziensis in two landscape zones of the Kruger National Park (KNP). Ticks were collected by dragging the vegetation monthly in three habitats (grassland, woodland and gully) at two sites in the KNP (Nhlowa Road and Skukuza) from August 1988 to March 2002. Larvae were the most commonly collected stage of both species. More R. appendiculatus were collected at Nhlowa Road than at Skukuza, with larvae being most abundant from May to August, while nymphs were most abundant from August to December. Larvae were most commonly collected in the gullies from 1991 to 1994, but in the grassland and woodland habitats from 1998 onwards. Nymphs were most commonly collected in the grassland and woodland. More R. zambeziensis were collected at Skukuza than at Nhlowa Road, with larvae being most abundant from May to September, while nymphs were most abundant from August to November. Larvae and nymphs were most commonly collected in the woodland and gullies and least commonly in the grassland (p < 0.01). The lowest numbers of R. appendiculatus were collected in the mid-1990s after the 1991/1992 drought. Rhipicephalus zambeziensis numbers declined after 1991 and even further after 1998, dropping to their lowest levels during 2002. The changes in numbers of these two species reflected changes in rainfall and the populations of several of their large herbivore hosts, as well as differences in the relative humidity between the two sites over time.


Author(s):  
Alita Pinter

A variety of hypotheses has been proposed to explain multiannual fluctuations in population density ("cycles") of small rodents (for reviews see Finerty 1980, Taitt and Krebs 1985). Doubtless, such cycles - known since antiquity (Elton 1942) - result from an interaction of a multitude of factors. However, the inability of extant hypotheses, alone or in combination, to explain the causality of cycles rests in no small measure with the fact that long-term studies of the phenomenon are notoriously uncommon.


2021 ◽  
pp. 181-196
Author(s):  
Edgar J. González ◽  
Dylan Z. Childs ◽  
Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio ◽  
Roberto Salguero-Gómez

Integral projection models (IPMs) allow projecting the behaviour of a population over time using information on the vital processes of individuals, their state, and that of the environment they inhabit. As with matrix population models (MPMs), time is treated as a discrete variable, but in IPMs, state and environmental variables are continuous and are related to the vital rates via generalised linear models. Vital rates in turn integrate into the population dynamics in a mechanistic way. This chapter provides a brief description of the logic behind IPMs and their construction, and, because they share many of the analyses developed for MPMs, it only emphasises how perturbation analyses can be performed with respect to different model elements. The chapter exemplifies the construction of a simple and a more complex IPM structure with an animal and a plant case study, respectively. Finally, inverse modelling in IPMs is presented, a method that allows population projection when some vital rates are not observed.


Author(s):  
Aelita Pinter

Multiannual fluctuations in population density ("cycles") of small rodents have been known since antiquity (Elton 1942). Numerous hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon (for reviews see Finerty 1980, Taitt and Krebs 1985). However, none of these hypotheses, alone or in combination, have been able to explain the causality of cycles. The objectives of this long-term study are to determine whether environmental variables, possibly acting through reproductive responses, contribute to the multiannual fluctuations of the montane vole, Microtus montanus.


Author(s):  
Aelita Pinter

Multiannual fluctuations in population density of small rodents have been known since antiquity. However, factors responsible for this phenomenon remain unknown (Krebs and Myers 1974, Finerty 1980, Taitt and Krebs 1985). The objectives of this long-term study are to determine whether environmental variables, possibly acting through reproductive responses, contribute to the multiannual fluctuations of the montane vole, Microtus montanus.


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