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Data and code for: Nonlinear life table response analysis: Decomposing nonlinear and nonadditive population growth responses to changes in environmental drivers

Data files

Mar 14, 2024 version files 91.07 KB

Abstract

Life table response experiments (LTREs) decompose differences in population growth rate between environments into separate contributions from each underlying demographic rate. However, most LTRE analyses make the unrealistic assumption that the relationships between demographic rates and environmental drivers are linear and independent, which may result in diminished accuracy when these assumptions are violated. In this study, we compare the relative efficacy of linear and second-order LTRE analyses in capturing changes in population growth rate caused by environmental driver changes. To explore this question, we analyze demographic data collected for three long-lived plant species: Ardisia escallonioides (Pascarella & Horvitz, 1998), Silene acaulis, and Bistorta vivipara (Doak & Morris, 2010). This repository includes data files containing vital rate (survival, growth, reproduction) observations or models for our three case studies, as well as an R script in which we use these demographic data to calculate linear and second-order LTRE approximations of changes in population growth rate for each system and generate the figures we present in our paper.