Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact
Cost-effective use of limited conservation resources requires understanding which data can most contribute to alleviating biodiversity declines. Interventions might reasonably prioritise life-cycle transitions with the greatest influence on population dynamics, yet some contributing vital rates are...
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ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:468432 2023-07-30T04:02:59+02:00 Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact Nicol-Harper, Alex Doncaster, C. Patrick Hilton, Geoff Wood, Kevin Ezard, Thomas 2022-05-24 https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/468432/ English eng [Unknown type: UNSPECIFIED] NonPeerReviewed 2022 ftsouthampton 2023-07-09T22:54:14Z Cost-effective use of limited conservation resources requires understanding which data can most contribute to alleviating biodiversity declines. Interventions might reasonably prioritise life-cycle transitions with the greatest influence on population dynamics, yet some contributing vital rates are particularly challenging to document; such pragmatic decision-making risks suboptimal management if less is known about influential rates. We aimed to explore whether study effort aligns with demographic impact on population growth rate, λ. We parameterised a matrix population model using meta-analysis of vital rates for the common eider (Somateria mollissima), an increasingly threatened yet comparatively data-rich species of seaduck. Female common eiders exhibit intermittent breeding, with some established breeders skipping one or more years between breeding attempts. We accounted for this behaviour by building breeding propensity (= 0.72) into our model with a discrete and reversible ‘non-breeder’ stage (to which surviving adults transition with a probability of 0.28). The transitions between breeding and non-breeding states had twice the influence on λ than fertility (summed matrix-element elasticities of 24% and 11%, respectively), whereas almost 15 times as many studies document components of fertility than breeding propensity (n = 103 and n = 7, respectively). Through comparative re-analyses, we find similar results for two amphibian species, further supporting our finding that study effort does not always occur in proportion to relative influence on λ. Our workflow could form part of the toolkit informing future investment of finite resources, to avoid repeated disconnects between data needs and availability thwarting evidence-driven conservation. Text Common Eider Somateria mollissima University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton |
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Open Polar |
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University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton |
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ftsouthampton |
language |
English |
description |
Cost-effective use of limited conservation resources requires understanding which data can most contribute to alleviating biodiversity declines. Interventions might reasonably prioritise life-cycle transitions with the greatest influence on population dynamics, yet some contributing vital rates are particularly challenging to document; such pragmatic decision-making risks suboptimal management if less is known about influential rates. We aimed to explore whether study effort aligns with demographic impact on population growth rate, λ. We parameterised a matrix population model using meta-analysis of vital rates for the common eider (Somateria mollissima), an increasingly threatened yet comparatively data-rich species of seaduck. Female common eiders exhibit intermittent breeding, with some established breeders skipping one or more years between breeding attempts. We accounted for this behaviour by building breeding propensity (= 0.72) into our model with a discrete and reversible ‘non-breeder’ stage (to which surviving adults transition with a probability of 0.28). The transitions between breeding and non-breeding states had twice the influence on λ than fertility (summed matrix-element elasticities of 24% and 11%, respectively), whereas almost 15 times as many studies document components of fertility than breeding propensity (n = 103 and n = 7, respectively). Through comparative re-analyses, we find similar results for two amphibian species, further supporting our finding that study effort does not always occur in proportion to relative influence on λ. Our workflow could form part of the toolkit informing future investment of finite resources, to avoid repeated disconnects between data needs and availability thwarting evidence-driven conservation. |
format |
Text |
author |
Nicol-Harper, Alex Doncaster, C. Patrick Hilton, Geoff Wood, Kevin Ezard, Thomas |
spellingShingle |
Nicol-Harper, Alex Doncaster, C. Patrick Hilton, Geoff Wood, Kevin Ezard, Thomas Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact |
author_facet |
Nicol-Harper, Alex Doncaster, C. Patrick Hilton, Geoff Wood, Kevin Ezard, Thomas |
author_sort |
Nicol-Harper, Alex |
title |
Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact |
title_short |
Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact |
title_full |
Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact |
title_fullStr |
Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact |
title_full_unstemmed |
Conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact |
title_sort |
conservation implications of a mismatch between data availability and demographic impact |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/468432/ |
genre |
Common Eider Somateria mollissima |
genre_facet |
Common Eider Somateria mollissima |
op_relation |
[Unknown type: UNSPECIFIED] |
_version_ |
1772813895265681408 |