Influence of life history strategies on sensitivity, population growth and response to climate for sympatric alpine birds ...

• Main Authors: Wilson, Scott D., Martin, Kathy
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central 2015
• Subjects: rock ptarmigan
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0221427; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0221427

Background: The life history strategy of a species can influence how populations of that species respond to environmental variation. In this study, we used a matrix modeling approach to examine how life history differences among sympatric rock and white-tailed ptarmigan affect the influence of demographic rates on population growth (λ) and the potential response to a changing climate. Rock ptarmigan have a slower life history strategy than white-tailed ptarmigan in the study region with lower annual reproductive effort but higher adult survival. Results Based on data from a 5-year field study, deterministic estimates of λ indicated that populations were stable for rock ptarmigan (λ = 1.01), but declining for white-tailed ptarmigan (λ = 0.96). The demographic rates with the highest elasticity for rock ptarmigan were the survival of after-second year females, followed by juvenile survival and success of the first nest. For white-tailed ptarmigan, juvenile survival had the highest elasticity followed by success ...