Publication Date:
2007-03-17
Description:
Population dynamics and evolutionary change are linked by the fundamental biological processes of birth and death. This means that population growth may correlate with the strength of selection, whereas evolutionary change can leave an ecological signature. We decompose population growth in an age-structured population into contributions from variation in a quantitative trait. We report that the distribution of body sizes within a population of Soay sheep can markedly influence population dynamics, accounting for up to one-fifth of observed population growth. Our results suggest that there is substantial opportunity for evolutionary dynamics to leave an ecological signature and visa versa.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pelletier, Fanie -- Clutton-Brock, Tim -- Pemberton, Josephine -- Tuljapurkar, Shripad -- Coulson, Tim -- P01 AG 22500/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- P01 AG022500/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- P01 AG022500-04/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2007 Mar 16;315(5818):1571-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Biology and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17363672" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Birth Weight
;
Body Size/genetics
;
Body Weight/genetics
;
Ecology
;
Environment
;
Female
;
*Genetic Variation
;
Hindlimb/anatomy & histology
;
Male
;
Mathematics
;
Population Dynamics
;
Population Growth
;
*Quantitative Trait, Heritable
;
Scotland
;
*Selection, Genetic
;
*Sheep/anatomy & histology/genetics/growth & development
;
Weather
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
