Flexible demographic strategies promote the population persistence of a pioneer conifer tree (Pinus massoniana) in ecological restoration

Intraspecific transitioning of ecological strategies in Pinus massoniana trees across restoration stages

“…Pinus massoniana is a strongly shade‐intolerant species, monoecious, flowering in April–May each year, with cones that usually develop over 2 years from which young seedlings are usually established in March of each year. Coupled with its advantages of establishing barren land, drought tolerance, and a rapid growth rate, P. massoniana is becoming the pioneer species of choice for local ecological restoration projects (Atsushi et al., 2005 ; Wang et al., 2023 ). During ecological restoration, soil fertility, understory vegetation cover and height, species abundance, and the number of broadleaf species in this native forest type all gradually increase.…”

“…Pioneers, being very sensitive to environmental changes, will in turn be influenced by continual flux in abiotic factors as restoration proceeds, namely increasing soil fertility and decreasing light availability (Espírito‐Santo et al., 2013 ; Pardos et al., 2009 ). To optimize their own fitness, individuals at different ontogenetic stages within a pioneer population could adopt contrasting strategies in response to environmental change during the course of restoration (Letcher et al., 2015 ; Lopez‐Martinez et al., 2013 ; Wang et al., 2021 , 2023 ). In this way, by studying tree trait dynamics under ecological restoration, we can investigate the transition of strategies within a pioneer species along an environmental gradient.…”

“…To optimize their own fitness, individuals at different ontogenetic stages within a pioneer population could adopt contrasting strategies in response to environmental change during the course of restoration (Letcher et al, 2015;Lopez-Martinez et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2021Wang et al, , 2023. In this way, by studying tree trait dynamics under ecological restoration, we can investigate the transition of strategies within a pioneer species along an environmental gradient.…”

Population responses to environmental stochasticity are primarily driven by survival-reproduction trade-offs and mediated by aridity

“…Importantly, while previous works have developed this approach for matrix elements 34,48,62,64 , here we extend the method to evaluate the effects of the underlying components of matrix elements -vital rates, 𝑣 -thus offering higher resolution and allowing evaluating the impact of survival independent of other survival-dependent processes such as growth and shrinkage 65 . Unlike matrix elements, elasticities in the underlying vital rates might be negative 65 , thus the sum of stochastic elasticity of 𝜆 !…”

Structured demographic buffering: A framework to explore the environment drivers and demographic mechanisms underlying demographic buffering

“…Quantifying demographic buffering in natural populations has been a dynamic area of study in recent decades. The field has moved from regression-based approaches, where the deterministic elasticities (or sensitivities) of demographic rates with respect to λ are regressed against the coefficient of variation (or variance) of demographic rates (Pfister 1998;Morris & Doak 2004; further examples in Hilde et al 2020), to a derivative-based approach that uses the summation of stochastic elasticities of variance, ∑ 𝐸 𝑎 𝑖𝑗 𝜎 2 , as a measure of demographic buffering (Santos et al 2023;Wang et al 2023). Despite important insights (e.g., McDonald et al 2017), the regression-based approaches have important limitations, such as being confounded by the life cycle's complexity, the lack of standardized methods (Hilde et al 2020), and difficulty in clear-cut interpretations (see Santos et al 2023 for further details).…”