Floater mortality within settlement areas can explain the Allee effect in breeding populations

Vincenzo Penteriani, Fermín Otalora and Miguel Ferrer

Ecological Modelling, 2008, vol. 213, issue 1, 98-104

Abstract: The Allee effect (the positive relationship between population growth rate and population size) is a constraint of some animal populations at low numbers, which increases their likelihood of extinction because of a decrease in reproduction and/or survival. We were able to demonstrate that the Allee effect can be the result of a mortality increase affecting floaters (i.e. dispersing individuals able to enter as breeders in the reproductive population when a breeding territory or a potential mate – owner of a suitable breeding territory – becomes available). Previously, potential mechanisms underlying Allee effects were always related to the breeding portion of a population only. In contrast, our understanding of or solutions to population declines due to the Allee effects can reside elsewhere, away from breeding territories.

Keywords: Allee effect; Aquila adalberti; Density-dependent fecundity; Extinction; Floater; Settlement areas; Spanish imperial eagle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380007006175
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:213:y:2008:i:1:p:98-104

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.11.009

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().