Including trait-based early warning signals helps predict population collapse.

ABSTRACT: Foreseeing population collapse is an on-going target in ecology, and this has led to the development of early warning signals based on expected changes in leading indicators before a bifurcation. Such signals have been sought for in abundance time-series data on a population of interest, with varying degrees of success. Here we move beyond these established methods by including parallel time-series data of abundance and fitness-related trait dynamics. Using data from a microcosm experiment, we show that including information on the dynamics of phenotypic traits such as body size into composite early warning indices can produce more accurate inferences of whether a population is approaching a critical transition than using abundance time-series alone. By including fitness-related trait info

SUBMITTER: Clements CF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4820807 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature