Buffering of Life Histories against Environmental Stochasticity: Accounting for a Spurious Correlation between the Variabilities of Vital Rates and Their Contributions to Fitness

2004 ◽  
Vol 163 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
William F. Morris ◽  
Daniel F. Doak
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Environmental Stochasticity ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Spurious Correlation

scholarly journals From stochastic environments to life histories and back

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1523) ◽  
pp. 1499-1509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shripad Tuljapurkar ◽  
Jean-Michel Gaillard ◽  
Tim Coulson
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
Environmental Stochasticity ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Stochastic Growth ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
History Evolution ◽  
Average Individual

Environmental stochasticity is known to play an important role in life-history evolution, but most general theory assumes a constant environment. In this paper, we examine life-history evolution in a variable environment, by decomposing average individual fitness (measured by the long-run stochastic growth rate) into contributions from average vital rates and their temporal variation. We examine how generation time, demographic dispersion (measured by the dispersion of reproductive events across the lifespan), demographic resilience (measured by damping time), within-year variances in vital rates, within-year correlations between vital rates and between-year correlations in vital rates combine to determine average individual fitness of stylized life histories. In a fluctuating environment, we show that there is often a range of cohort generation times at which the fitness is at a maximum. Thus, we expect ‘optimal’ phenotypes in fluctuating environments to differ from optimal phenotypes in constant environments. We show that stochastic growth rates are strongly affected by demographic dispersion, even when deterministic growth rates are not, and that demographic dispersion also determines the response of life-history-specific average fitness to within- and between-year correlations. Serial correlations can have a strong effect on fitness, and, depending on the structure of the life history, may act to increase or decrease fitness. The approach we outline takes a useful first step in developing general life-history theory for non-constant environments.

scholarly journals Harvesting can stabilize population fluctuations and buffer the impacts of climate change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart Peeters ◽  
Vidar GrØtan ◽  
Marlène Gamelon ◽  
Vebjørn Veiberg ◽  
Aline Magdalena Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Population Models ◽  
Environmental Stochasticity ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Population Fluctuations ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Density Dependent ◽  
Environmental Perturbations

Harvesting can magnify the destabilizing effects of environmental perturbations on population dynamics and, thereby, increase extinction risk. However, population-dynamic theory predicts that impacts of harvesting depend on the type and strength of density-dependent regulation. Here, we used population models for a range of life histories and an empirical reindeer case study to show that harvesting can actually buffer populations against environmental perturbations. This occurs because of density-dependent environmental stochasticity, where negative environmental impacts on vital rates are amplified at high population density due to intra-specific resource competition. Simulations from our population models show that even low levels of proportional harvesting may prevent overabundance, thereby dampening population fluctuations and reducing the risk of population collapse and quasi-extinction induced by environmental perturbations. Thus, depending on the species’ life history and the strength of density-dependent environmental drivers, harvesting can improve population resistance to increased climate variability and extreme weather expected under global warming.

scholarly journals Robustness of life histories to environmental variability in complex versus simple life cycles

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Jonsson
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Relative Advantage ◽  
Complex Life Cycle ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Habitat Separation ◽  
Simple Life

AbstractMost animal species have a complex life cycle (CLC) with metamorphosis. It is thus of interest to examine possible benefits of such life histories. The prevailing view is that CLC represents an adaptation for genetic decoupling of juvenile and adult traits, thereby allowing life stages to respond independently to different selective forces. Here I propose an additional potential advantage of CLCs that is, decreased variance in population growth rate due to habitat separation of life stages. Habitat separation of pre- and post-metamorphic stages means that the stages will experience different regimes of environmental variability. This is in contrast to species with simple life cycles (SLC) whose life stages often occupy one and the same habitat. The correlation in the fluctuations of the vital rates of life stages is therefore likely to be weaker in complex than in simple life cycles. By a theoretical framework using an analytical approach, I have (1) derived the relative advantage, in terms of long-run growth rate, of CLC over SLC phenotypes for a broad spectrum of life histories, and (2) explored which life histories that benefit most by a CLC, that is avoid correlation in vital rates between life stages. The direction and magnitude of gain depended on life history type and fluctuating vital rate. One implication of our study is that species with CLCs should, on average, be more robust to increased environmental variability caused by global warming than species with SLCs.

Challenges for Diadromous Fishes in a Dynamic Global Environment

2009 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Partial Migration ◽  
Environmental Stochasticity ◽  
Species Dynamics ◽  
Life Cycle Pattern ◽  
Aquatic Sciences ◽  
Diversity Of Life

<em>Abstract</em>.-In the study of species life histories and the structure of diadromous populations, an emerging trend is the prevalence of life cycle diversity-that is, individuals within populations that do not conform to a single life cycle pattern. A rapid rise in publications documenting within-population variability in life cycles has resulted in the use of numerous terms and phrases. We argue that myriad terms specific to taxa, ecosystem types, and applications are in fact describing the same phenomenon-life cycle diversity. This phenomenon has been obscured by the use of multiple terms across applications, but also by the overuse of typologies (i.e., anadromy, catadromy) that fail to convey the extent of life cycle variations that underlay population, metapopulation, and species dynamics. To illustrate this, we review migration and habitat-use terms that have been used to describe life cycles and life cycle variation. Using a citation index (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts © Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts), terms were tallied across taxonomic family, ecosystem, type of application, analytical approach, and country of study. Studies on life cycle diversity have increased threefold during the past 15 years, with a total of 336 papers identified in this review. Most of the 40 terms we identified described either sedentary or migratory lifetime behaviors. The sedentary-migratory dichotomy fits well with the phenomenon of partial migration, which has been commonly reported for birds and Salmonidae and is postulated to be the result of early life thresholds (switch-points). On the other hand, the lexicon supports alternate modes of migration, beyond the simple sedentary-migratory dichotomy. Here more elaborate causal mechanisms such as the entrainment hypothesis may have application. Diversity of life cycles in fish populations, whether due to partial migration, entrainment, or other mechanisms, is increasingly recognized as having the effect of offsetting environmental stochasticity and contributing to long-term persistence.

scholarly journals Population variability under stressors is dependent on body mass growth and asymptotic body size

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 192011
Author(s):  
Leonie Färber ◽  
Rob van Gemert ◽  
Øystein Langangen ◽  
Joël M. Durant ◽  
Ken H. Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
Fish Stock ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
Asymptotic Size ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Stock Recruitment

The recruitment and biomass of a fish stock are influenced by their environmental conditions and anthropogenic pressures such as fishing. The variability in the environment often translates into fluctuations in recruitment, which then propagate throughout the stock biomass. In order to manage fish stocks sustainably, it is necessary to understand their dynamics. Here, we systematically explore the dynamics and sensitivity of fish stock recruitment and biomass to environmental noise. Using an age-structured and trait-based model, we explore random noise (white noise) and autocorrelated noise (red noise) in combination with low to high levels of harvesting. We determine the vital rates of stocks covering a wide range of possible body mass (size) growth rates and asymptotic size parameter combinations. Our study indicates that the variability of stock recruitment and biomass are probably correlated with the stock's asymptotic size and growth rate. We find that fast-growing and large-sized fish stocks are likely to be less vulnerable to disturbances than slow-growing and small-sized fish stocks. We show how the natural variability in fish stocks is amplified by fishing, not just for one stock but for a broad range of fish life histories.

Does environmental stochasticity matter? Analysis of red deer life-histories on Rum

1995 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 559-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. G. Benton ◽  
A. Grant ◽  
T. H. Clutton-Brock
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Environmental Stochasticity

scholarly journals The importance of life history and population regulation for the evolution of social learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1803) ◽  
pp. 20190492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Deffner ◽  
Richard McElreath
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Age Structure ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Population Regulation ◽  
Individual Learning ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Strategic Learning ◽  
Cognition And Culture ◽  
Exemplary Model

Social learning and life history interact in human adaptation, but nearly all models of the evolution of social learning omit age structure and population regulation. Further progress is hindered by a poor appreciation of how life history affects selection on learning. We discuss why life history and age structure are important for social learning and present an exemplary model of the evolution of social learning in which demographic properties of the population arise endogenously from assumptions about per capita vital rates and different forms of population regulation. We find that, counterintuitively, a stronger reliance on social learning is favoured in organisms characterized by ‘fast’ life histories with high mortality and fertility rates compared to ‘slower’ life histories typical of primates. Long lifespans make early investment in learning more profitable and increase the probability that the environment switches within generations. Both effects favour more individual learning. Additionally, under fertility regulation (as opposed to mortality regulation), more juveniles are born shortly after switches in the environment when many adults are not adapted, creating selection for more individual learning. To explain the empirical association between social learning and long life spans and to appreciate the implications for human evolution, we need further modelling frameworks allowing strategic learning and cumulative culture. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Life history and learning: how childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals’.

Predicting the effects of climate change on bird population dynamics

2019 ◽  
pp. 74-90
Author(s):  
Bernt-Erik Sæther ◽  
Steinar Engen ◽  
Marlène Gamelon ◽  
Vidar Grøtan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Environmental Stochasticity ◽  
Population Estimates ◽  
Parameter Estimates ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Statistical Sense ◽  
High Level ◽  
Avian Populations

Climate variation strongly influences fluctuations in size of avian populations. In this chapter, we show that it is difficult to predict how the abundance of birds will respond to climate change. A major reason for this is that most available time series of fluctuations in population size are in a statistical sense short, thus often resulting in large uncertainties in parameter estimates. We therefore argue that reliable population predictions must be based on models that capture how climate change will affect vital rates as well as including other processes (e.g. density-dependences) known to affect the population dynamics of the species in question. Our survey of examples of such forecast studies show that reliable predictions necessarily contain a high level of uncertainty. A major reason for this is that avian population dynamics are strongly influenced by environmental stochasticity, which is for most species, irrespective of their life history, the most important driver of fluctuations in population size. Credible population predictions must therefore assess the effects of such uncertainties as well as biases in population estimates.

A Spurious Correlation in an Interpopulation Comparison of Atlantic Salmon Life Histories

Ecology ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1839-1843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ransom A. Myers ◽  
Jeffrey A. Hutchings
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Salmon ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Spurious Correlation

scholarly journals Evolution of mixed maturation strategies in semelparous life histories: the crucial role of dimensionality of feedback environment

1997 ◽  
Vol 352 (1361) ◽  
pp. 1647-1655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikko Heino ◽  
J. A. J. Metz ◽  
Veijo Kaitala
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Environmental Stochasticity ◽  
Dynamical Regime ◽  
Mixed Strategies ◽  
Age At Maturity ◽  
Feedback Environment ◽  
Age Classes ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategies

We study the evolution of age at maturity in a semelparous life history with two age classes. An individual may either breed in the first year of its life and die, or delay breeding to the second year. In this setting a mixed strategy means that a fraction of the individual's offspring breed in the first possible breeding event, while the remaining fraction delay breeding. Current theory seems to imply that mixed strategies are not evolutionarily stable strategies (ESSs) under a steady-state population dynamical regime. We show that a two-dimensional feedback environment may allow the evolution of mixed age at maturity. Furthermore, different phenotypes need to perceive the environment differently. The biological reasoning behind these conditions is different resource usage or predation pressure between two age classes. Thus, the conventional explanations for the occurrence of mixed strategies in natural populations, environmental stochasticity or complex dynamics, are not needed.

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