POPULATION DYNAMICS ACROSS GEOGRAPHICAL RANGES: TIME‐SERIES ANALYSES OF THREE SMALL GAME SPECIES

摘要: Little is known about how density-independent and density-dependent processes affecting population dynamics vary geographically across species' ranges. To address this problem for three vertebrate species (Northern Bobwhite [Colinus virginianus], Ring-necked Pheasants [Phasianus colchicus], eastern cottontails [Sylvilagus floridanus]), we examined spatially subdivided, long-term (1966–2001), seasonal (January, April, July, October), time-series data from the Kansas Rural Mail Carrier Survey, USA. All have range boundaries in Kansas, with abundances declining toward periphery of their We quantified strengths 10 populations each ranging low (peripheral) to high (central) mean abundance using first-order autoregressive models that incorporate measurement error. For all species, peripheral lower tended greater population...