More social species live longer, have longer generation times, and longer reproductive windows

The role of sociality in the demography of animals has become an intense focus of research in recent decades. However, efforts to understand the sociality-demography nexus have focused on single species or isolated taxonomic groups. Consequently, we lack generality regarding how sociality associates...

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Autor Principal: Salguero-Gomez, R
Formato: Journal article
Idioma:English
Publicado: Royal Society 2024
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author Salguero-Gomez, R
author_facet Salguero-Gomez, R
author_sort Salguero-Gomez, R
collection OXFORD
description The role of sociality in the demography of animals has become an intense focus of research in recent decades. However, efforts to understand the sociality-demography nexus have focused on single species or isolated taxonomic groups. Consequently, we lack generality regarding how sociality associates with demographic traits within the Animal Kingdom. Here, I propose a continuum of sociality, from solitary to tightly social, and test whether this continuum correlates with the key demographic properties of 152 species, from jellyfish to humans. After correction for body mass and phylogenetic relationships, I show that the sociality continuum is associated with key life history traits: more social species live longer, postpone maturity, have longer generation time, and greater probability of achieving reproduction than solitary, gregarious, communal, or colonial species. Contrary to the social buffering hypothesis, sociality does not result in more buffered populations. While more social species have a lower ability to benefit from disturbances, they display greater resistance than more solitary species. Finally, I also show that sociality does not shape reproductive or actuarial senescence rates. This cross-taxonomic examination of sociality across the demography of 13 taxonomic classes highlights keyways in which individual interactions shape most aspects of animal demography.
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spelling oxford-uuid:96d109e7-9dfd-46c0-8fce-f11f347e90132024-11-21T10:38:18ZMore social species live longer, have longer generation times, and longer reproductive windowsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:96d109e7-9dfd-46c0-8fce-f11f347e9013EnglishSymplectic ElementsRoyal Society2024Salguero-Gomez, RThe role of sociality in the demography of animals has become an intense focus of research in recent decades. However, efforts to understand the sociality-demography nexus have focused on single species or isolated taxonomic groups. Consequently, we lack generality regarding how sociality associates with demographic traits within the Animal Kingdom. Here, I propose a continuum of sociality, from solitary to tightly social, and test whether this continuum correlates with the key demographic properties of 152 species, from jellyfish to humans. After correction for body mass and phylogenetic relationships, I show that the sociality continuum is associated with key life history traits: more social species live longer, postpone maturity, have longer generation time, and greater probability of achieving reproduction than solitary, gregarious, communal, or colonial species. Contrary to the social buffering hypothesis, sociality does not result in more buffered populations. While more social species have a lower ability to benefit from disturbances, they display greater resistance than more solitary species. Finally, I also show that sociality does not shape reproductive or actuarial senescence rates. This cross-taxonomic examination of sociality across the demography of 13 taxonomic classes highlights keyways in which individual interactions shape most aspects of animal demography.
spellingShingle Salguero-Gomez, R
More social species live longer, have longer generation times, and longer reproductive windows
title More social species live longer, have longer generation times, and longer reproductive windows
title_full More social species live longer, have longer generation times, and longer reproductive windows
title_fullStr More social species live longer, have longer generation times, and longer reproductive windows
title_full_unstemmed More social species live longer, have longer generation times, and longer reproductive windows
title_short More social species live longer, have longer generation times, and longer reproductive windows
title_sort more social species live longer have longer generation times and longer reproductive windows
work_keys_str_mv AT salguerogomezr moresocialspecieslivelongerhavelongergenerationtimesandlongerreproductivewindows