Premium
Reproductive dispersion and damping time scale with life‐history speed
Author(s) -
Jiang Sha,
Jaggi Harman,
Zuo Wenyun,
Oli Madan K.,
Coulson Tim,
Gaillard JeanMichel,
Tuljapurkar Shripad
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/ele.14080
Subject(s) - semelparity and iteroparity , allometry , scaling , dispersion (optics) , life history , life history theory , population , biology , scale (ratio) , reproduction , ecology , physics , demography , mathematics , geometry , quantum mechanics , sociology , optics
Iteroparous species may reproduce at many different ages, resulting in a reproductive dispersion that affects the damping of population perturbations, and varies among life histories. Since generation time (T c) is known to capture aspects of life‐history variation, such as life‐history speed, doesT calso determine reproductive dispersion ( S ) or damping time ( τ )? Using phylogenetically corrected analyses on 633 species of animals and plants, we find, firstly, that reproductive dispersionSscales isometrically withT c. Secondly, and unexpectedly, we find that the damping time ( τ ) does not scale isometrically with generation time, but instead changes only asT c bwithb < 1(also, there is a similar scaling withS ). This non‐isometric scaling implies a novel demographic contrast: increasing generation times correspond to a proportional increase in reproductive dispersion, but only to a slower increase in the damping time. Thus, damping times are partly decoupled from the slow‐fast continuum, and are determined by factors other than allometric constraints.