Multivariate signals of population collapse in a high-throughput ecological experiment.

ABSTRACT: Anticipating population declines is a crucial goal of conservation ecology. Recent conceptual work suggests that populations facing growing stressors should exhibit sequential shifts in behavior, morphology, and abundance before declining to extinction. However, the lack of high-resolution, multidimensional data has hindered empirical validation of this conceptual work. Using an autonomously monitored, high-throughput experimental system, we generated individual-based data on populations of the ciliate Paramecium caudatum forced to collapse due to increasingly stressful conditions. The gradual introduction of a pollutant elicited the predictable sequence of responses-declines in movement speed, followed by declines in body length, emergence of early warning signals of collapse, and finally

SUBMITTER: Cerini F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12436010 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature