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Does climate variability influence the demography of wild primates? Evidence from long-term life-history data in seven species.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Campos, FA; Morris, WF; Alberts, SC; Altmann, J; Brockman, DK; Cords, M; Pusey, A; Stoinski, TS; Strier, KB; Fedigan, LM
Published in: Global change biology
November 2017

Earth's rapidly changing climate creates a growing need to understand how demographic processes in natural populations are affected by climate variability, particularly among organisms threatened by extinction. Long-term, large-scale, and cross-taxon studies of vital rate variation in relation to climate variability can be particularly valuable because they can reveal environmental drivers that affect multiple species over extensive regions. Few such data exist for animals with slow life histories, particularly in the tropics, where climate variation over large-scale space is asynchronous. As our closest relatives, nonhuman primates are especially valuable as a resource to understand the roles of climate variability and climate change in human evolutionary history. Here, we provide the first comprehensive investigation of vital rate variation in relation to climate variability among wild primates. We ask whether primates are sensitive to global changes that are universal (e.g., higher temperature, large-scale climate oscillations) or whether they are more sensitive to global change effects that are local (e.g., more rain in some places), which would complicate predictions of how primates in general will respond to climate change. To address these questions, we use a database of long-term life-history data for natural populations of seven primate species that have been studied for 29-52 years to investigate associations between vital rate variation, local climate variability, and global climate oscillations. Associations between vital rates and climate variability varied among species and depended on the time windows considered, highlighting the importance of temporal scale in detection of such effects. We found strong climate signals in the fertility rates of three species. However, survival, which has a greater impact on population growth, was little affected by climate variability. Thus, we found evidence for demographic buffering of life histories, but also evidence of mechanisms by which climate change could affect the fates of wild primates.

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Published In

Global change biology

DOI

EISSN

1365-2486

ISSN

1354-1013

Publication Date

November 2017

Volume

23

Issue

11

Start / End Page

4907 / 4921

Related Subject Headings

  • Primates
  • Population Dynamics
  • Ecology
  • Demography
  • Climate Change
  • Animals
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 37 Earth sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
  • 06 Biological Sciences
 

Citation

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Campos, F. A., Morris, W. F., Alberts, S. C., Altmann, J., Brockman, D. K., Cords, M., … Fedigan, L. M. (2017). Does climate variability influence the demography of wild primates? Evidence from long-term life-history data in seven species. Global Change Biology, 23(11), 4907–4921. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13754
Campos, Fernando A., William F. Morris, Susan C. Alberts, Jeanne Altmann, Diane K. Brockman, Marina Cords, Anne Pusey, Tara S. Stoinski, Karen B. Strier, and Linda M. Fedigan. “Does climate variability influence the demography of wild primates? Evidence from long-term life-history data in seven species.Global Change Biology 23, no. 11 (November 2017): 4907–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13754.
Campos FA, Morris WF, Alberts SC, Altmann J, Brockman DK, Cords M, et al. Does climate variability influence the demography of wild primates? Evidence from long-term life-history data in seven species. Global change biology. 2017 Nov;23(11):4907–21.
Campos, Fernando A., et al. “Does climate variability influence the demography of wild primates? Evidence from long-term life-history data in seven species.Global Change Biology, vol. 23, no. 11, Nov. 2017, pp. 4907–21. Epmc, doi:10.1111/gcb.13754.
Campos FA, Morris WF, Alberts SC, Altmann J, Brockman DK, Cords M, Pusey A, Stoinski TS, Strier KB, Fedigan LM. Does climate variability influence the demography of wild primates? Evidence from long-term life-history data in seven species. Global change biology. 2017 Nov;23(11):4907–4921.
Journal cover image

Published In

Global change biology

DOI

EISSN

1365-2486

ISSN

1354-1013

Publication Date

November 2017

Volume

23

Issue

11

Start / End Page

4907 / 4921

Related Subject Headings

  • Primates
  • Population Dynamics
  • Ecology
  • Demography
  • Climate Change
  • Animals
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 37 Earth sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
  • 06 Biological Sciences