Density-dependent reproduction causes winter crashes in a common vole population

International audience Common voles in western France exhibit threeyearpopulation cycles with winter crashes after largeoutbreaks. During the winter of 2011–2012, we monitoredsurvival, reproduction, recruitment and population growthrate of common voles at different densities (from low tooutbreak den...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population Ecology
Main Authors: Pinot, Adrien, Barraquand, Frederic, Tedesco, Edoardo, Lecoustre, Vincent, Bretagnolle, Vincent, Gauffre, Bertrand
Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), Université de La Rochelle (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), UR 0874 Unité de recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Unité de recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial (UREP)-Ecologie des Forêts, Prairies et milieux Aquatiques (EFPA), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2016
Subjects:
Density dependence
Microtus arvalis
Population cycles
CMR
Survival
Recruitment
[SDE]Environmental Sciences
Common vole
Online Access:https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01497192
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-016-0552-3
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Summary:International audience Common voles in western France exhibit threeyearpopulation cycles with winter crashes after largeoutbreaks. During the winter of 2011–2012, we monitoredsurvival, reproduction, recruitment and population growthrate of common voles at different densities (from low tooutbreak densities) in natura to better understand densitydependence of demographic parameters. Between Octoberand April, the number of animals decreased irrespective ofinitial density. However, the decline was more pronouncedwhen October density was higher (loss of &54 % ofindividuals at low density and 95 % at high density). Usingcapture-mark-recapture models with Pradel’s temporalsymmetry approach, we found a negative effect of densityon recruitment and reproduction. In contrast, density had aslightly positive effect on survival indicating that mortalitydid not drive the steeper declines in animal numbers at highdensity. We discuss these results in a population cycleframework, and suggest that crashes after outbreaks couldreflect negative effects of density dependence on reproductionrather than changes in mortality rates.

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