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Variability of important vital rates challenges the demographic buffering hypothesis

Jakalaniemi, A. ; Ramula, Satu LU and Tuomi, J. (2013) In Evolutionary Ecology 27(3). p.533-545
Abstract
Selection is assumed to eliminate life-histories showing high variability in vital rates that have the greatest influence on population performance. Therefore, an inverse variability-importance relationship of vital rates is believed to be a universal pattern for diverse life-histories. We tested for such a relationship using multi-year demographic data on a large number of populations of two perennial plant species. Applying different approaches, we first examined the overall variability-importance relationship for the average main vital rates (survival, growth, retrogression, fecundity) per species, and then separately for each population. We found an overall inverse relationship between temporal variation and importance of the average... (More)
Selection is assumed to eliminate life-histories showing high variability in vital rates that have the greatest influence on population performance. Therefore, an inverse variability-importance relationship of vital rates is believed to be a universal pattern for diverse life-histories. We tested for such a relationship using multi-year demographic data on a large number of populations of two perennial plant species. Applying different approaches, we first examined the overall variability-importance relationship for the average main vital rates (survival, growth, retrogression, fecundity) per species, and then separately for each population. We found an overall inverse relationship between temporal variation and importance of the average main vital rates for both study species, but these negative species-level correlations were mainly caused by different scales of the examined vital rates. When variability-importance relationships were examined across individual demographic transitions within populations, the abundance of positive and negative correlations depended largely on the method used, and positive correlations were more common after correcting vital rates for sampling variation than when using uncorrected vital rates. Our results cast doubt on the generality of the demographic buffering hypothesis, suggesting that the inverse variability-importance relationship may not be a universal pattern when vital rates are examined for multiple populations of the same plant species. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Correlation, Elasticity, Method, Matrix element, Sensitivity, Riparian, plant
in
Evolutionary Ecology
volume
27
issue
3
pages
533 - 545
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • wos:000316639100006
  • scopus:84875398207
ISSN
1573-8477
DOI
10.1007/s10682-012-9606-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
72a9f2ce-d0da-4206-ad1f-099b84d86501 (old id 3748291)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:44:54
date last changed
2022-03-22 01:46:11
@article{72a9f2ce-d0da-4206-ad1f-099b84d86501,
  abstract     = {{Selection is assumed to eliminate life-histories showing high variability in vital rates that have the greatest influence on population performance. Therefore, an inverse variability-importance relationship of vital rates is believed to be a universal pattern for diverse life-histories. We tested for such a relationship using multi-year demographic data on a large number of populations of two perennial plant species. Applying different approaches, we first examined the overall variability-importance relationship for the average main vital rates (survival, growth, retrogression, fecundity) per species, and then separately for each population. We found an overall inverse relationship between temporal variation and importance of the average main vital rates for both study species, but these negative species-level correlations were mainly caused by different scales of the examined vital rates. When variability-importance relationships were examined across individual demographic transitions within populations, the abundance of positive and negative correlations depended largely on the method used, and positive correlations were more common after correcting vital rates for sampling variation than when using uncorrected vital rates. Our results cast doubt on the generality of the demographic buffering hypothesis, suggesting that the inverse variability-importance relationship may not be a universal pattern when vital rates are examined for multiple populations of the same plant species.}},
  author       = {{Jakalaniemi, A. and Ramula, Satu and Tuomi, J.}},
  issn         = {{1573-8477}},
  keywords     = {{Correlation; Elasticity; Method; Matrix element; Sensitivity; Riparian; plant}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{533--545}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Evolutionary Ecology}},
  title        = {{Variability of important vital rates challenges the demographic buffering hypothesis}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10682-012-9606-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10682-012-9606-y}},
  volume       = {{27}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}