Net effects of life-history traits explain persistent differences in abundance among similar species
Abstract
Life-history traits are promising tools to predict species commonness and rarity because they influence a population's fitness in a given environment. Yet, species with similar traits can have vastly different abundances, challenging the prospect of robust trait-based predictions. Using long-term demographic monitoring, we show that coral populations with similar morphological and life-history traits show persistent (decade-long) differences in abundance. Morphological groups predicted species positions along two, well-known life-history axes (the fast-slow continuum and size-specific fecundity). However, integral projection models revealed that density-independent population growth (λ) was more variable within morphological groups, and was consistently higher in dominant species relative to rare species. Within-group λ differences projected large abundance differences among similar species in short timeframes, and were generated by small but compounding variation in growth, survival, and reproduction. Our study shows that easily-measured morphological traits predict demographic strategies, yet small life-history differences can accumulate into large differences in λ and abundance among similar species. Quantifying the net effects of multiple traits on population dynamics is therefore essential to anticipate species commonness and rarity.
Citation
McWilliam , M , Dornelas , M , Álvarez-Noriega , M , Baird , A H , Connolly , S R & Madin , J S 2023 , ' Net effects of life-history traits explain persistent differences in abundance among similar species ' , Ecology , vol. 104 , no. 1 , e3863 . https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3863
Publication
Ecology
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
10.1002/ecy.3863ISSN
0012-9658Type
Journal article
Description
Funding: JSM and MM were supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)1948946. MD is supported by the Warman Foundation, the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity (RC-2018-021) and NSF-NERC grant NE/V009338/1. MM is supported by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2021-512).Collections
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