Publication Date:
2010-07-24
Description:
Environmental change has altered the phenology, morphological traits and population dynamics of many species. However, the links underlying these joint responses remain largely unknown owing to a paucity of long-term data and the lack of an appropriate analytical framework. Here we investigate the link between phenotypic and demographic responses to environmental change using a new methodology and a long-term (1976-2008) data set from a hibernating mammal (the yellow-bellied marmot) inhabiting a dynamic subalpine habitat. We demonstrate how earlier emergence from hibernation and earlier weaning of young has led to a longer growing season and larger body masses before hibernation. The resulting shift in both the phenotype and the relationship between phenotype and fitness components led to a decline in adult mortality, which in turn triggered an abrupt increase in population size in recent years. Direct and trait-mediated effects of environmental change made comparable contributions to the observed marked increase in population growth. Our results help explain how a shift in phenology can cause simultaneous phenotypic and demographic changes, and highlight the need for a theory integrating ecological and evolutionary dynamics in stochastic environments.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ozgul, Arpat -- Childs, Dylan Z -- Oli, Madan K -- Armitage, Kenneth B -- Blumstein, Daniel T -- Olson, Lucretia E -- Tuljapurkar, Shripad -- Coulson, Tim -- P01 AG022500/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2010 Jul 22;466(7305):482-5. doi: 10.1038/nature09210.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK. a.ozgul@imperial.ac.uk〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20651690" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Biological Evolution
;
Body Weight/*physiology
;
Colorado
;
Female
;
*Global Warming
;
Hibernation/*physiology
;
Marmota/*anatomy & histology/growth & development/*physiology
;
Phenotype
;
Population Dynamics
;
Reproduction/physiology
;
Survival Rate
;
Time Factors
;
Weaning
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
