Environmental variance, population growth and evolution

• Published in: The Journal of animal ecology 2010, Vol.79 (1), p.1-3
• Main Author: Tuljapurkar, Shripad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; Conservation biology; Ecological genetics; Ecosystem; Environmental conservation; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; In Focus; Kangaroos; Longevity; Macropodidae - genetics; Macropodidae - physiology; Macropus rufus; Models, Biological; Population dynamics; Population ecology; Population Growth; Population growth rate; Rain; Wildlife ecology
• ISSN: 0021-8790; 1365-2656
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2009.01619.x

N. Jonzén, T. Pople, K. Knape & M. Skjöld (2009) Stochastic demography and population dynamics in the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus). Journal of Animal Ecology, 79, 109-116. Environmental fluctuations on time scales of one to tens of generations are increasingly recognized as important determinants of population dynamics and microevolution. Jonzén et al. in this issue analyse how the vital rates of red kangaroos depend on annual rainfall, and estimate the elasticities of stochastic growth rate to the means and variances of the vital rates, as well as to the mean and variance of rainfall. Their results demonstrate how ecological and evolutionary studies can benefit from including explicit environmental drivers when modelling populations, and from the use of mean and variance elasticities.