A talk given at the German Botanical Society meeting in Mainz, Germany on 18th September 2012.

1. Variation in plant
demographic trajectories:
problems and opportunities
Owen R. Jones & Roberto Salguero-Gómez
jones@demogr.mpg.de salguero@demogr.mpg.de
Laboratory for Evolutionary Demography,
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research,
Rostock, Germany

2. Evolution is a demographic
process
“Evolution is driven by the propagation of genes,
traits and individuals with and between
populations. This propagation depends on the
survival, fertility and dispersal at each age or
stage during their life history.”
Metcalf & Pavard (2007) TREE

3. Mortality/fertility rate
Survivorship (lx)

4. Classical theories of the evolution
of senescence
Medawar (1952) Williams (1957) Hamilton (1966) Kirkwood (1977)
Older ages are less important to evolution
than younger ages:
- force of selection declines with age.

5. Classical theories of the evolution
of senescence
Reproduction
Mortality
Age Age
“No life schedule ... could escape my spectrum of
forces of senescence … in the farthest reaches of
almost any bizarre universe” (Hamilton, 1966)

6. COMPADRE Database
COMParative Plant & Algae Demographic REsearch
Trees
Palms
Miguel Franco
Succulents
Lianas
Shrubs
Jonathan Silvertown
Epiphytes
Algae Herbs

7. COMPADRE Database
COMParative Plant & Algae Demographic REsearch
Trees
Palms
Miguel Franco
Succulents
Roberto Salguero-Gómez
Lianas
Shrubs
Jonathan Silvertown
Epiphytes
Algae Herbs

8. COMPADRE Database
COMParative Plant & Algae Demographic REsearch
Trees
Palms
1 " " 33"
"""""""44" " """""""""""""""""88 " " """""""""""""132" Succulents
Number of species
817 species Lianas
Shrubs
Epiphytes
Algae Herbs

9. From matrices to trajectories
lx
Age
mx
Age
Caswell (2001); Cochran and
Ellner (1992)