Population dynamics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Swimming bacteria perform collective motion at high cell density, yet it is unclear how this behaviour affects their ability to follow substance gradients in the environment. Here, Colin et al. address this question by studying motion of Escherichia coli in controlled chemical gradients.

    • Remy Colin
    • , Knut Drescher
    •  & Victor Sourjik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many species’ life cycles have moved earlier in the year because of climate change, but we do not know the consequences for range expansions. The authors show that these advances promote range expansions in species with multiple reproductive cycles per year, but not in species with only one.

    • Callum J. Macgregor
    • , Chris D. Thomas
    •  & Jane K. Hill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Garden bird feeding is a prolific human activity that provides a reliable foraging opportunity to wild birds. Here the authors use a 40-year data set to show that large-scale restructuring of garden bird communities and growth in urban bird populations can be linked to changing feeding practices.

    • Kate E. Plummer
    • , Kate Risely
    •  & Gavin M. Siriwardena

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Environmental stress can affect the outcome of ecological competition. Here, the authors use theory and experiments with a synthetic microbial community to show that a tradeoff between growth rate and competitive ability determines which species prevails when the population faces variable mortality rates.

    • Clare I. Abreu
    • , Jonathan Friedman
    •  & Jeff Gore

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While several studies have documented early warning signals of population collapse, the use of such signals as indicators of population recovery has not been investigated. Here the authors use models and empirical fisheries data to show that there are statistical indicators preceding recovery of cod populations.

    • Christopher F. Clements
    • , Michael A. McCarthy
    •  & Julia L. Blanchard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extreme climate events can cause population crashes and may threaten population persistence. Here, the authors model reindeer population dynamics and find that more frequent extremely icy winters can actually reduce extinction risk due to density dependence and a demographic shift to resilient ages.

    • Brage B. Hansen
    • , Marlène Gamelon
    •  & Vidar Grøtan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Protection of rare species requires advanced understanding of the reasons for their rarity. Here, Hallett et al. show that potential growth rate and density dependence together predict rarity vs. abundance, and that the stability of species of similar sizes depends on the relative strength of these two mechanisms.

    • Lauren M. Hallett
    • , Emily C. Farrer
    •  & Richard J. Hobbs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Amphibians have seen large population declines, but the key drivers are hard to establish. Here, Miller et al. investigate trends of occupancy for 81 species of amphibians across North America and find greater sensitivity to water availability during breeding and winter conditions than mean climate.

    • David A. W. Miller
    • , Evan H. Campbell Grant
    •  & Brent H. Sigafus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tools from statistical physics can be used to investigate a large variety of fields ranging from economics to biology. Here the authors first adapt density-functional theory to predict the distributions of crowds in new environments and then validate their approach using groups of fruit flies.

    • J. Felipe Méndez-Valderrama
    • , Yunus A. Kinkhabwala
    •  & T. A. Arias

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Higher-order interactions occur when one species mediates the interaction between two others. Here, the authors model microbial growth and competition to show that higher-order interactions can arise from tradeoffs in growth traits, leading to neutral coexistence and other complex dynamics.

    • Michael Manhart
    •  & Eugene I. Shakhnovich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The disease dynamics of bovine tuberculosis have been of interest given the pathogen’s effect on wild animal and livestock health. Here, the authors show that a brief cessation of testing for bovine tuberculosis in 2001 altered the population synchrony of the disease dynamics across regions of Great Britain.

    • Aristides Moustakas
    • , Matthew R. Evans
    •  & Yannis Markonis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diatoms account for 40% of marine primary production and their sensitivity to ocean acidification could have ecosystem-wide consequences. Here, the authors developed and applied a stress test, demonstrating that resilience of diatoms increases significantly in ocean acidification conditions.

    • Jacob J. Valenzuela
    • , Adrián López García de Lomana
    •  & Nitin S. Baliga

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biases in adult sex ratio (ASR) are common, yet their causes and consequences are not well understood. Here, the authors analyse data from >6000 individuals of five shorebird species, showing that sex differences in juvenile survival drive ASR variation and biased ASR is associated with uniparental care.

    • Luke J. Eberhart-Phillips
    • , Clemens Küpper
    •  & Oliver Krüger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wolbachia infection in mosquitoes reduces dengue virus spread under specific lab conditions, prompting its use in disease control. Here, King et al. show that Wolbachia increases mean and variance in mosquito susceptibility and explain how this affects Wolbachia invasion and dengue transmission.

    • Jessica G. King
    • , Caetano Souto-Maior
    •  & M. Gabriela M. Gomes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hunting and harvesting are generally expected to select for faster life histories in the exploited species. Here, the authors analyse data from a hunted population of brown bears in Sweden and show that regulations protecting females with dependent young lead hunting to favor prolonged maternal care.

    • Joanie Van de Walle
    • , Gabriel Pigeon
    •  & Fanie Pelletier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energetic constraints produce a fundamental tradeoff in starvation and recovery rates, impacting eco-evolutionary dynamics. Here, Yeakel et al. develop a nutritional state-structured model that predicts population size as a function of body mass known as Damuth’s law, and a mechanism for Cope’s rule, the evolutionary trend towards larger body mass.

    • Justin D. Yeakel
    • , Christopher P. Kempes
    •  & Sidney Redner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The drivers of North Atlantic phytoplankton bloom have been debated for decades, partially owing to incomplete sub-surface observations. Here, Mignot et al. use robotic sensors to provide detailed observations of developing blooms and to explore the drivers of different phases of plankton growth.

    • A. Mignot
    • , R. Ferrari
    •  & H. Claustre

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding ecological interactions in microbial communities is limited by lack of informative longitudinal abundance data necessary for reliable inference. Here, Xiao et al. develop a method to infer the interactions between microbes based on their abundances in steady-state samples.

    • Yandong Xiao
    • , Marco Tulio Angulo
    •  & Yang-Yu Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Determining the conservation status and populations trends for elusive predators has been impeded by discrepancies in how densities are calculated. Here, Luskin et al. introduce a means to standardize previous density estimates and assess the threats to the Sumatran tiger.

    • Matthew Scott Luskin
    • , Wido Rizki Albert
    •  & Mathias W. Tobler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adélie penguins are a key Antarctic indicator species, but data patchiness has challenged efforts to link population dynamics to key drivers. Che-Castaldo et al. resolve this issue using a pan-Antarctic Bayesian model to infer missing data, and show that spatial aggregation leads to more robust inference regarding dynamics.

    • Christian Che-Castaldo
    • , Stephanie Jenouvrier
    •  & Heather J. Lynch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Top predators can reduce local mesopredator abundance either through direct predation or behavioural changes. Here, Newsome and colleagues demonstrate at a landscape scale across three continents that mesopredator populations are suppressed at the core, but less so on the periphery, of top predators’ ranges.

    • Thomas M. Newsome
    • , Aaron C. Greenville
    •  & Aaron J. Wirsing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many estimates of fisheries recovery time currently assume that the environment and associated fish population dynamics are fixed. Brittenet al. use Bayesian models incorporating variation in productivity and carrying capacity to provide revised estimates of recovery timelines for depleted fish stocks worldwide.

    • Gregory L. Britten
    • , Michael Dowd
    •  & Boris Worm

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stopover sites are crucial to migratory birds, but the influence of this habitat on population dynamics has not been quantified. Here, Studds et al. show that, among ten migratory species, the degree of reliance on disappearing stopover habitat in the Yellow Sea tidal flats predicts the extent of recent population declines.

    • Colin E. Studds
    • , Bruce E. Kendall
    •  & Richard A. Fuller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Population dynamics of migratory animals can be driven by direct, indirect, and potentially opposing effects at wintering and breeding grounds. Here, Woodworthet al. show that migratory sparrow population growth rate is balanced by temperature at wintering grounds and density-dependence at breeding grounds.

    • Bradley K. Woodworth
    • , Nathaniel T. Wheelwright
    •  & D. Ryan Norris

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theory suggests that spatial sorting by dispersal ability can generate evolutionarily accelerated range expansions. Using the bean beetleCallosobruchus maculatus, this study shows that evolution not only increases the speed of range expansion, as predicted, but also increases variability.

    • Brad M. Ochocki
    •  & Tom E. X. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spatial structure provides unique opportunities for evolution during range expansions. Here, the authors show experimentally using the red flour beetle,Tribolium castaneum, that dispersal and growth can evolve through spatial processes, increasing expansion speed and its variance.

    • Christopher Weiss-Lehman
    • , Ruth A Hufbauer
    •  & Brett A Melbourne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rapid local adaptation could potentially facilitate the recolonization of restored habitats. Here, the authors show that reed warblers have undergone substantial adaptive change in body mass in only 19 years after colonizing a restored wetland in Malta.

    • Camilla Lo Cascio Sætre
    • , Charles Coleiro
    •  & Fabrice Eroukhmanoff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Insect populations have fluctuated enormously over the past century, with many changes being attributed to anthropogenic climate change. Rochlinet al. show that the pesticide DDT and increasing urbanization are more strongly associated with changes in the number and diversity of mosquitoes on both coasts of North America.

    • Ilia Rochlin
    • , Ary Faraji
    •  & A. Marm Kilpatrick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Accurate determination of population size for highly-mobile marine animals is often prohibitively difficult. Here, Bravingtonet al.estimate the abundance of southern bluefin tuna using a method based on the number of parent-offspring pairs detected genetically in samples from the catch.

    • Mark V. Bravington
    • , Peter M. Grewe
    •  & Campbell R. Davies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Protected areas are intended to safeguard wildlife, but their effectiveness has at times been questioned. Barnes, Craigie, and colleagues show that protected areas do offer refuge—maintaining their bird and mammal abundances—but with greater success for larger-bodied species and in more developed nations.

    • Megan D. Barnes
    • , Ian D. Craigie
    •  & Stephen Woodley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Species sharing a common enemy such as a parasitoid or predator can indirectly affect one another. Here, Frost et al. use quantitative food-web data from communities of caterpillar hosts to show experimentally that apparent competition is important in predicting food-web structure across habitats.

    • Carol M. Frost
    • , Guadalupe Peralta
    •  & Jason M. Tylianakis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neonicotinoid as insecticide on oilseed rape can reduce bee colony density, but its effect at a large geographical scale is unclear. This study describes 18-year long wild bee tracking data in England and show neonicotinoid use is correlated with wild bee population declines at real landscape scales.

    • Ben A. Woodcock
    • , Nicholas J. B. Isaac
    •  & Richard F. Pywell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether conditions experienced on long-distance migrations affect breeding populations is not clear. Here, the authors tracked migrating Common Cuckoos from the UK to Africa and show that route choices affect mortality during migration, and population decline in this nocturnally migrating bird.

    • Chris M. Hewson
    • , Kasper Thorup
    •  & Philip W. Atkinson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Modularity in food webs can be caused by spatial and temporal mismatches in interactions. Here, Jacopo Grilli, Tim Rogers and Stefano Allesina show that modularity, contrary to expectations, does not generally help stabilizing ecological communities.

    • Jacopo Grilli
    • , Tim Rogers
    •  & Stefano Allesina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Why does population variability differ? Sæther et al. show that the magnitude of temporal variation of avian population fluctuations is mainly determined by environmental fluctuations affecting recruitment, whereas regulation of mean population size occurs through density-dependent mortality.

    • Bernt-Erik Sæther
    • , Vidar Grøtan
    •  & Henri Weimerskirch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting population collapse by monitoring key early warning signals in time-series data may highlight when interventions are needed. Here, the authors show that including information on phenotypic traits like body size can more accurately predict critical transitions than abundance data alone.

    • Christopher F. Clements
    •  & Arpat Ozgul

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little evidence exists on whether human-generated noise directly affects survival of wildlife. Here, Simpson et al. show that damselfish exposed to motorboat noise have elevated metabolic rates, reduced responses to predatory attacks, and suffer increased predation compared to fish in ambient conditions.

    • Stephen D. Simpson
    • , Andrew N. Radford
    •  & Mark G. Meekan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how biological invaders displace native species is challenging. Here, the authors compare the evolution of life-history strategies in the harlequin ladybird under laboratory conditions and show that invaders reproduce earlier and allocate more resources to reproduction than natives.

    • Ashraf Tayeh
    • , Ruth A. Hufbauer
    •  & Benoit Facon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Long-range synchronization of ecological populations separated by distances greater than their dispersal range is thought only to occur via environmental correlations. Here, Noble et al.show that synchronization can also occur beyond these distances, and is described by the Ising universality class.

    • Andrew E. Noble
    • , Jonathan Machta
    •  & Alan Hastings

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effect of intraspecific body size variation on the efficiency with which energy is transferred between trophic levels is not well understood. Here, Reichstein et al. show that biasing resource delivery toward less efficient consumer life stages can lead to a doubling of consumer biomass.

    • Birte Reichstein
    • , Lennart Persson
    •  & André M. De Roos

  • Article |

    Trade-offs between life history traits are key to understanding biodiversity. Here, the authors use population genetics models and experimental microbial evolution to show that trade-off geometry can be deduced from fundamental biological principles, and used to predict biodiversity stability.

    • Justin R. Meyer
    • , Ivana Gudelj
    •  & Robert Beardmore

  • Article |

    Spatially separate populations may exhibit synchronised dynamics as a result of correlated environmental influences. Here, Massie et al. show that this phenomenon, known as the Moran effect, can be enhanced if the environmental signals experienced by two populations differ in their noise colour.

    • Thomas M. Massie
    • , Guntram Weithoff
    •  & Bernd Blasius

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Co-infection of plants with multiple pathogen strains is predicted to alter disease dynamics. Here, Susi et al.use experimental and natural population data to show that co-infected host plants spread more disease and cause more devastating epidemics than singly infected hosts.

    • Hanna Susi
    • , Benoit Barrès
    •  & Anna-Liisa Laine

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