Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Blumstein, Daniel T
• Coulson, Tim
• Armitage, Kenneth B
• Childs, Dylan Z
• Tuljapurkar, Shripad
• Ozgul, Arpat
• Olson, Lucretia E
• Oli, Madan K

Titel

Coupled dynamics of body mass and population growth in response to environmental change

Ist Teil von

• Nature (London), 2010-07, Vol.466 (7305), p.482-485

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Quelle

Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Environmental change has altered the phenology, morphological traits and population dynamics of many species. However, the links underlying these joint responses remain largely unknown owing to a paucity of long-term data and the lack of an appropriate analytical framework. Here we investigate the link between phenotypic and demographic responses to environmental change using a new methodology and a long-term (1976-2008) data set from a hibernating mammal (the yellow-bellied marmot) inhabiting a dynamic subalpine habitat. We demonstrate how earlier emergence from hibernation and earlier weaning of young has led to a longer growing season and larger body masses before hibernation. The resulting shift in both the phenotype and the relationship between phenotype and fitness components led to a decline in adult mortality, which in turn triggered an abrupt increase in population size in recent years. Direct and trait-mediated effects of environmental change made comparable contributions to the observed marked increase in population growth. Our results help explain how a shift in phenology can cause simultaneous phenotypic and demographic changes, and highlight the need for a theory integrating ecological and evolutionary dynamics in stochastic environments.