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Life Histories

Life Histories

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.

Population Growth

Population Growth

Population size is dynamic, increasing with birth rates and immigration, and decreasing with death rates and emigration. In ideal conditions with unlimited resources, populations can increase exponentially, which plots as a J-shaped growth rate curve of population size against time. This type of curve is characteristic of newly-introduced invasive species, or populations that have suffered catastrophic declines and are rebounding.

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Ecological Succession

Ecological succession is influenced by the processes of facilitation, inhibition, and toleration. Facilitation occurs when early successional species create more favorable ecological conditions for subsequent species, such as enhanced nutrient, water, or light availability. In contrast, inhibition happens when early successional species create unfavorable ecological conditions for potential successive species, such as limiting resource availability. In some cases, later successional species...

Ecological Disturbance

Ecological Disturbance

An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.

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Metapopulation persistence with age-dependent disturbance or succession.

Alan Hastings¹

¹Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. amhastings@ucdavis.edu

Science (New York, N.Y.)

|September 13, 2003

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Metapopulation models for species conservation require colonization rates to exceed extinction rates. New research shows persistence depends on colonization exceeding the inverse of mean patch age, crucial for effective wildlife management.

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Conservation Biology
Population Dynamics

Background:

Metapopulation models are vital for species conservation and management.
Current models often assume random disturbances and a simple colonization-extinction balance for persistence.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate metapopulation persistence under a more general model incorporating patch age-dependent extinction (succession).
To identify the critical conditions for metapopulation persistence when patch age influences extinction risk.

Main Methods:

Developed a general metapopulation model that includes the effect of succession or patch age on extinction rates.
Analyzed the mathematical conditions required for metapopulation persistence within this age-structured framework.

Main Results:

Persistence requires the per-patch colonization rate to be greater than the inverse of the mean patch age.
Metapopulations can persist with low colonization rates if mean patch age is high, a factor often overlooked.

Conclusions:

Standard metapopulation models may misjudge extinction risks by not accounting for patch age.
Conservation and management strategies must incorporate mean patch age to accurately assess and ensure population persistence.