Demographic buffering of life histories? Implications of the choice of measurement scale
Life-history theory predicts that the vital rates that influence population growth the most should be buffered against environmental fluctuations due to selection for reduced variation. However, it remains unclear whether populations actually are influenced by such “demographic buffering,” because v...
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Ecological Society of America
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2460872 https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0317.1 |
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ftntnutrondheimi:oai:ntnuopen.ntnu.no:11250/2460872 2023-05-15T18:29:49+02:00 Demographic buffering of life histories? Implications of the choice of measurement scale Bjørkvoll, Eirin Marie Lee, Aline Magdalena Grøtan, Vidar Sæther, Bernt-Erik Stien, Audun Engen, Steinar Albon, Steve D. Loe, Leif Egil Hansen, Brage Bremset 2016 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2460872 https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0317.1 eng eng Ecological Society of America Norges forskningsråd: 223257 Norges forskningsråd: 178561 Ecology. 2016, 97 (1), 40-47. urn:issn:0012-9658 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2460872 https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0317.1 cristin:1266868 40-47 97 Ecology 1 Journal article Peer reviewed 2016 ftntnutrondheimi https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0317.1 2019-09-17T06:52:57Z Life-history theory predicts that the vital rates that influence population growth the most should be buffered against environmental fluctuations due to selection for reduced variation. However, it remains unclear whether populations actually are influenced by such “demographic buffering,” because variation in vital rates can be compared on different measurement scales, and there has been little attempt to investigate whether the choice of scale influences the chance of detecting demographic buffering. We compared two statistical approaches to examine whether demographic buffering has influenced vital rates in wild Svalbard reindeer. To account for statistical variance constraints on vital rates limited between 0 and 1 in analyses of demographic buffering, one approach is to scale observed variation by the maximum possible variation on the arithmetic scale. When applying this approach, the results suggested that demographic buffering was occurring. However, when we applied an alternative approach that identified statistical variance constraints on the logit scale, there was no evidence for demographic buffering. Thus, the choice of measurement scale must be carefully considered before one can fully understand whether demographic buffering influences life histories. Defining the appropriate scale may require an understanding of the mechanisms through which demographic buffering may have evolved. acceptedVersion © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America. This is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. Article in Journal/Newspaper Svalbard svalbard reindeer NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Svalbard Ecology 97 1 40 47 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftntnutrondheimi |
language |
English |
description |
Life-history theory predicts that the vital rates that influence population growth the most should be buffered against environmental fluctuations due to selection for reduced variation. However, it remains unclear whether populations actually are influenced by such “demographic buffering,” because variation in vital rates can be compared on different measurement scales, and there has been little attempt to investigate whether the choice of scale influences the chance of detecting demographic buffering. We compared two statistical approaches to examine whether demographic buffering has influenced vital rates in wild Svalbard reindeer. To account for statistical variance constraints on vital rates limited between 0 and 1 in analyses of demographic buffering, one approach is to scale observed variation by the maximum possible variation on the arithmetic scale. When applying this approach, the results suggested that demographic buffering was occurring. However, when we applied an alternative approach that identified statistical variance constraints on the logit scale, there was no evidence for demographic buffering. Thus, the choice of measurement scale must be carefully considered before one can fully understand whether demographic buffering influences life histories. Defining the appropriate scale may require an understanding of the mechanisms through which demographic buffering may have evolved. acceptedVersion © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America. This is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bjørkvoll, Eirin Marie Lee, Aline Magdalena Grøtan, Vidar Sæther, Bernt-Erik Stien, Audun Engen, Steinar Albon, Steve D. Loe, Leif Egil Hansen, Brage Bremset |
spellingShingle |
Bjørkvoll, Eirin Marie Lee, Aline Magdalena Grøtan, Vidar Sæther, Bernt-Erik Stien, Audun Engen, Steinar Albon, Steve D. Loe, Leif Egil Hansen, Brage Bremset Demographic buffering of life histories? Implications of the choice of measurement scale |
author_facet |
Bjørkvoll, Eirin Marie Lee, Aline Magdalena Grøtan, Vidar Sæther, Bernt-Erik Stien, Audun Engen, Steinar Albon, Steve D. Loe, Leif Egil Hansen, Brage Bremset |
author_sort |
Bjørkvoll, Eirin Marie |
title |
Demographic buffering of life histories? Implications of the choice of measurement scale |
title_short |
Demographic buffering of life histories? Implications of the choice of measurement scale |
title_full |
Demographic buffering of life histories? Implications of the choice of measurement scale |
title_fullStr |
Demographic buffering of life histories? Implications of the choice of measurement scale |
title_full_unstemmed |
Demographic buffering of life histories? Implications of the choice of measurement scale |
title_sort |
demographic buffering of life histories? implications of the choice of measurement scale |
publisher |
Ecological Society of America |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2460872 https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0317.1 |
geographic |
Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Svalbard |
genre |
Svalbard svalbard reindeer |
genre_facet |
Svalbard svalbard reindeer |
op_source |
40-47 97 Ecology 1 |
op_relation |
Norges forskningsråd: 223257 Norges forskningsråd: 178561 Ecology. 2016, 97 (1), 40-47. urn:issn:0012-9658 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2460872 https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0317.1 cristin:1266868 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0317.1 |
container_title |
Ecology |
container_volume |
97 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
40 |
op_container_end_page |
47 |
_version_ |
1766213218139635712 |