Correlations between early‐ and late‐life performance are a major prediction of life‐history theory. Negative early–late correlations can emerge because biological processes are optimized for early but not late life (e.g., rapid development may accelerate the onset of senescence; “developmental theory of aging”) or because allocation to early‐life performance comes at a cost in terms of late‐life performance (as in the disposa...

The relative role of density‐dependent and density‐independent variation in vital rates and population size remains largely unsolved. Despite its importance to the theory and application of population ecology, and to conservation biology, quantifying the role and strength of density dependence is particularly challenging. We present a hierarchical formulation of the temporal symmetry approach, also known as the Pradel model, t...

In plant ecology, characterising colonisation and extinction in plant metapopulations is challenging due to the non‐detectable seed bank that allows plants to emerge after several years of absence. In this study, we used a Hidden Markov Model to characterise seed dormancy, colonisation and germination solely from the presence–absence of standing flora. Applying the model to data from a long‐term survey of 38 annual weeds acros...

Dispersal is a key process in ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Spatiotemporal variation in habitat availability and characteristics has been suggested to be one of the main cause involved in dispersal evolution and has a strong influence on metapopulation dynamics. In recent decades, the study of dispersal has led to the development of capture–recapture ( CR ) models that allow movement between sites to be quantified, whi...

Current climatic changes have increased the need to forecast population responses to climate variability. A common approach to address this question is through models that project current population state using the functional relationship between demographic rates and climatic variables. We argue that this approach can lead to erroneous conclusions when interpopulation dispersal is not considered. We found that immigration can...

Breeding propensity, i.e., the probability that a mature female attempts to breed in a given year, is a critical demographic parameter in long‐lived species. Life‐history theory predicts that this trait should be affected by reproductive trade‐offs so that the probability of future reproduction should depend on the current reproductive investment. However, breeding propensity is one of the most difficult parameters to estimate...

Dispersal affects processes as diverse as habitat selection, population growth, and gene flow. Inference about dispersal and its variation is thus crucial for assessing population and evolutionary dynamics. Two approaches are generally used to estimate dispersal in free‐ranging animals. First, multisite capture–recapture models estimate movement rates among sites while accounting for survival and detection probabilities. This...

A phenomenon of transience in the humpback whale population breeding in New Caledonia has been highlighted in recent analyses. We used these data to illustrate the risk of flawed inference when transience is not properly accounted for in abundance estimation of resident populations. Transients are commonly defined as individuals that pass through the sampling area once, i.e ., have a null probability of being caught again, and...

Behavioral ecologists have often assumed that dispersal is costly mainly because of unfamiliarity with traversed habitats during dispersal and energy costs of the movement per se; thus, dispersers that have successfully settled should experience survival rates comparable to those of philopatric individuals. In this paper, we tested that hypothesis using 152 radio‐collared European hares in a harvested population. We developed...

Assessing conservation strategies requires reliable estimates of abundance. Because detecting all individuals is most often impossible in free‐ranging populations, estimation procedures have to account for a .

Life history theory predicts that higher levels of reproductive investment entail higher reproductive costs especially among young and inexperienced individuals that might not optimize reproductive investment. Using a long‐term individual and state‐dependent capture–recapture data on Storm Petrels ( Hydrobates pelagicus ) we analyzed whether breeding experience and current breeding investment were associated with the expressio...