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The limits to population density in birds and mammals

We address two fundamental ecological questions: what are the limits to animal population density and what determines those limits? We develop simple alternative models to predict population limits in relation to body mass. A model assuming that within‐species area use increases with the square of d...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stephens, Philip A., Vieira, Marcus V., Willis, Stephen G., Carbone, Chris
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6850427/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30724435
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13227
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author Stephens, Philip A.
Vieira, Marcus V.
Willis, Stephen G.
Carbone, Chris
author_facet Stephens, Philip A.
Vieira, Marcus V.
Willis, Stephen G.
Carbone, Chris
author_sort Stephens, Philip A.
collection PubMed
description We address two fundamental ecological questions: what are the limits to animal population density and what determines those limits? We develop simple alternative models to predict population limits in relation to body mass. A model assuming that within‐species area use increases with the square of daily travel distance broadly predicts the scaling of empirical extremes of minimum density across birds and mammals. Consistent with model predictions, the estimated density range for a given mass, ‘population scope’, is greater for birds than for mammals. However, unlike mammals and carnivorous birds, expected broad relationships between body mass and density extremes are not supported by data on herbivorous and omnivorous birds. Our results suggest that simple constraints on mobility and energy use/supply are major determinants of the scaling of density limits, but further understanding of interactions between dietary constraints and density limits are needed to predict future wildlife population responses to anthropogenic threats.
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spelling pubmed-68504272019-11-18 The limits to population density in birds and mammals Stephens, Philip A. Vieira, Marcus V. Willis, Stephen G. Carbone, Chris Ecol Lett Letters We address two fundamental ecological questions: what are the limits to animal population density and what determines those limits? We develop simple alternative models to predict population limits in relation to body mass. A model assuming that within‐species area use increases with the square of daily travel distance broadly predicts the scaling of empirical extremes of minimum density across birds and mammals. Consistent with model predictions, the estimated density range for a given mass, ‘population scope’, is greater for birds than for mammals. However, unlike mammals and carnivorous birds, expected broad relationships between body mass and density extremes are not supported by data on herbivorous and omnivorous birds. Our results suggest that simple constraints on mobility and energy use/supply are major determinants of the scaling of density limits, but further understanding of interactions between dietary constraints and density limits are needed to predict future wildlife population responses to anthropogenic threats. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-02-06 2019-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6850427/ /pubmed/30724435 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13227 Text en © 2019 The Authors Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Letters
Stephens, Philip A.
Vieira, Marcus V.
Willis, Stephen G.
Carbone, Chris
The limits to population density in birds and mammals
title The limits to population density in birds and mammals
title_full The limits to population density in birds and mammals
title_fullStr The limits to population density in birds and mammals
title_full_unstemmed The limits to population density in birds and mammals
title_short The limits to population density in birds and mammals
title_sort limits to population density in birds and mammals
topic Letters
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6850427/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30724435
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13227
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