Data from: The diversity of population responses to environmental change

• Main Authors: Colchero, Fernando, Jones, Owen R., Conde, Dalia A., Hodgson, Dave, Zajitschek, Felix, Schmidt, Benedikt R., Malo, Aurelio F., Alberts, Susan C., Becker, Peter H., Bouwhuis, Sandra, Bronikowski, Anne M., De Vleeschouwer, Kristel M., Delahay, Richard J., Dummermuth, Stefan, Fernández-Duque, Eduardo, Frisenvænge, John, Hesselsøe, Martin, Larson, Sam, Lemaitre, Jean-Francois, McDonald, Jennifer, Miller, David A.W., O'Donnell, Colin, Packer, Craig, Raboy, Becky E., Reading, Christopher J., Wapstra, Erik, Weimerskirch, Henri, While, Geoffrey M., Baudisch, Annette, Flatt, Thomas, Coulson, Tim, Gaillard, Jean-Michel, Vleeschouwer, Kristel M., Hodgson, David, Reading, Chris J.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2019
• Subjects: Notophthalmus viridescens; Panthera leo; Salamandra salamandra; Aotus azarae; Capreolus capreolus; Pseudepidalea viridis; stochastic population growth; Chalinolobus tuberculatus; Falco tinnunculus; Cervus elaphus; Apodemus sylvaticus; Accipiter nisus; Parus major; Life table; Bufo bufo; Leontopithecus chrysomelas; Papio cynocephalus; Niveoscincus ocellatus; Thamnophis elegans; Ovis aries; Corvus frugilegus; Meles meles; Coronella austriaca; Fulmarus glacialoides; Vipera aspis; Sterna hirundo; Life sciences; medicine and health care; population dynamics; stat; envir; Parus
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.d5f54s7

The current extinction and climate change crises pressure us to predict population dynamics with ever-greater accuracy. Although predictions rest on the well-advanced theory of age-structured populations, two key issues remain poorly-explored. Specifically, how the age-dependency in demographic rates and the year-to-year interactions between survival and fecundity affect stochastic population growth rates. We use inference, simulations, and mathematical derivations to explore how environmental perturbations determine population growth rates for populations with different age-specific demographic rates and when ages are reduced to stages. We find that stage- vs. age-based models can produce markedly divergent stochastic population growth rates. The differences are most pronounced when there are survival-fecundity-trade-offs, which reduce the variance in the population growth rate. Finally, the expected value and variance of the stochastic growth rates of populations with different age-specific demographic rates can diverge to the extent that, while some populations may thrive, others will inevitably go extinct. LifeTablesLife tables for 24 species of terrestrial vertebrates.