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Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide

Power laws are cornerstone relationships in ecology and evolutionary biology. The density-mass allometry (DMA), which predicts an allometric scaling of population abundance, and Taylor’s law (TL), which predicts a decrease in the population abundance variation along with a decrease in population den...

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Autores principales: Anile, Stefano, Devillard, Sébastien
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7481184/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32908174
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71725-0
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author Anile, Stefano
Devillard, Sébastien
author_facet Anile, Stefano
Devillard, Sébastien
author_sort Anile, Stefano
collection PubMed
description Power laws are cornerstone relationships in ecology and evolutionary biology. The density-mass allometry (DMA), which predicts an allometric scaling of population abundance, and Taylor’s law (TL), which predicts a decrease in the population abundance variation along with a decrease in population density, have enhanced our knowledge of inter- and intra-specific variation in population abundance. When combined, these two power laws led to the variance-mass allometry (VMA), which states that larger species have lower spatial variation in population density than smaller species. The VMA has been predicted through theoretical models, however few studies have investigated if this law is also supported by empirical data. Here, to formally test the VMA, we have used the population density estimates obtained through worldwide camera trapping studies for an emblematic and ecologically important carnivorous taxa, the Felidae family. Our results showed that the VMA law hold in felids, as well as the TL and the DMA laws; bigger cat species showed less variation for the population density than smaller species. These results have important implications for the conservation of wildlife population and confirm the validity of important ecological concepts, like the allometric scaling of population growth rate and the slow-fast continuum of life history strategies.
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spelling pubmed-74811842020-09-11 Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide Anile, Stefano Devillard, Sébastien Sci Rep Article Power laws are cornerstone relationships in ecology and evolutionary biology. The density-mass allometry (DMA), which predicts an allometric scaling of population abundance, and Taylor’s law (TL), which predicts a decrease in the population abundance variation along with a decrease in population density, have enhanced our knowledge of inter- and intra-specific variation in population abundance. When combined, these two power laws led to the variance-mass allometry (VMA), which states that larger species have lower spatial variation in population density than smaller species. The VMA has been predicted through theoretical models, however few studies have investigated if this law is also supported by empirical data. Here, to formally test the VMA, we have used the population density estimates obtained through worldwide camera trapping studies for an emblematic and ecologically important carnivorous taxa, the Felidae family. Our results showed that the VMA law hold in felids, as well as the TL and the DMA laws; bigger cat species showed less variation for the population density than smaller species. These results have important implications for the conservation of wildlife population and confirm the validity of important ecological concepts, like the allometric scaling of population growth rate and the slow-fast continuum of life history strategies. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-09-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7481184/ /pubmed/32908174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71725-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Anile, Stefano
Devillard, Sébastien
Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide
title Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide
title_full Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide
title_fullStr Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide
title_full_unstemmed Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide
title_short Spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide
title_sort spatial variance-mass allometry of population density in felids from camera-trapping studies worldwide
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7481184/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32908174
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71725-0
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