Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Biological Sciences
First Advisor
Tad Dallas
Abstract
Populations occupy different regions of the geographic space and may experience distinct conditions over time that can cause fluctuations in their number of individuals. Environmental conditions, dispersal events, and resource availability are some of the factors that influence populations. A central goal in ecology has been to develop generalizations about how these factors that affect population dynamics are structured in geographic space. However, limited knowledge about where species occur and a lack of long-term surveys of populations has hindered the development, and validation, of such generalizations. In this dissertation, I use a combination of observational data, simulations, and experimental approaches to evaluate how different factors influence the distribution and the predictability of population dynamics. I found that models that are often employed to estimate species geographic distributions and densities are unreliable for predicting population sizes across geographic space. I also found that, contrary to what is commonly assumed, populations are not more variable near species geographic range edges, but population variability does increase near climatic niche limits and in variable environments. Lastly, I observed that the spatial arrangement of populations is important to determine the persistence time, but not the size and variability, of metapopulations. More broadly, my dissertation shows that population dynamics are highly variable and difficult to predict, suggesting that the conditions that populations experience are not generalizable across large scales.
Rights
© 2025, Cleber Ten Caten
Recommended Citation
Ten Caten, C.(2025). Examining the Distribution and Predictability of Population Dynamics Across Geographic Space. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8582