Spatial climate patterns explain negligible variation in strength of compensatory density feedbacks in birds and mammals.

ABSTRACT: The use of long-term population data to separate the demographic role of climate from density-modified demographic processes has become a major topic of ecological investigation over the last two decades. Although the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that determine the strength of density feedbacks are now well understood, the degree to which climate gradients shape those processes across taxa and broad spatial scales remains unclear. Intuitively, harsh or highly variable environmental conditions should weaken compensatory density feedbacks because populations are hypothetically unable to achieve or maintain densities at which social and trophic interactions (e.g., competition, parasitism, predation, disease) might systematically reduce population growth. Here we investigate variatio

SUBMITTER: Herrando-Perez S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3950218 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature