Population stability of a tropical lizard

Simple item page
dc.contributorVirginia Techen
dc.contributor.authorAndrews, Robin M.en
dc.contributor.departmentBiological Sciencesen
dc.date.accessed2014-03-11en
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-27T13:06:05Zen
dc.date.available2014-03-27T13:06:05Zen
dc.date.issued1991-08en
dc.description.abstractPopulations of the lizard Anolis limifrons were censused for 19 yr at the Lutz site on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) and for 4 yr at 20 additional sites in central Panama. Census data provided estimates of population density at the end of the wet season (December) and indices of per-capita food intake and annual recruitment. Year-to-year changes in density of as much as 5- to 8-fold were observed at Lutz over 19 yr and of 2- to 3-fold were observed over 4 yr at other sites. Changes in population density at 11 BCI sites were synchronous over 1983-1986, while population density fluctuated independently at non-BCI sites. Populations of A. limifrons exhibited significantly greater generation-to-generation variability than populations of West Indian Anolis and of lizards in temperate-zone habitats (mostly arid lands in North America). An index of per-capita food intake was negatively related to density both for temporal comparisons at Lutz and for spatial comparisons among sites. The relative number of young individuals at the end of the wet season was negatively related to population density and positively related to an estimate of food intake. Partial correlations indicated that the positive association between the relative number of young individuals in the population and food intake was independent of the negative association between food intake and population density. Recruitment was thus depressed when density was high and enhanced when food was relatively abundant. Despite the potential for density-dependent regulation, Anolis limifrons populations are highly unstable, presumably because of random perturbations of the environment. Rainfall is implicated causally although population density was only weakly associated with rainfall - density at BCI was positively associated with rainfall during the dry season and negatively associated with rainfall during the wet season and with total annual rainfall. Population attributes that contribute to instability are rapid population turnover and a middle-level trophic position in a complex food web.en
dc.description.sponsorshipEnvironmental Sciences Pro-gram and post-doctoral fellowship program of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Instituteen
dc.description.sponsorshipNSF Binational INT 7605758, B019801X, GB-37731Xen
dc.identifier.citationRobin M. Andrews 1991. Population Stability of a Tropical Lizard. Ecology 72:1204-1217. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1941094en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.2307/1941094en
dc.identifier.issn0012-9658en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/46841en
dc.identifier.urlhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1941094en
dc.language.isoen_USen
dc.publisherEcological Society of Americaen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectanolis-limifronsen
dc.subjectdensity dependenten
dc.subjectdensity independenten
dc.subjectfooden
dc.subjectlimitationen
dc.subjectiguanidaeen
dc.subjectpanamaen
dc.subjectpopulation densityen
dc.subjectpopulationen
dc.subjectregulationen
dc.subjectpopulation stabilityen
dc.subjecttropical lizarden
dc.subjecttropical rain-foresten
dc.subjectanolis-limifronsen
dc.subjectsceloporus-undulatusen
dc.subjectspatial variationen
dc.subjectlife-historyen
dc.subjectabundanceen
dc.subjectfluctuationsen
dc.subjectmortalityen
dc.subjectdiversityen
dc.subjectsurvivalen
dc.subjectconstanten
dc.titlePopulation stability of a tropical lizarden
dc.title.serialEcologyen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
1941094.pdf
Size:
2.51 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Main article
Download

Collections

Scholarly Works, Biological Sciences