Jean-Dominique Lebreton

• 
  An overview of Vertebrate Demography
  Jean-Dominique Lebreton

  The 7 traditional classes of Vertebrates (3 classes of Fish, Birds, Mammals, Reptiles and Amphibians) encompass around 64 000 species and are by far the best known animal group from a demographic point of view. After having briefly recalled the reasons for the abundance and quality of the demographic information available on Vertebrates, I will review this information, covering the following salient features:

  
  

  
  

  
  
  1. Most vertebrates have a discrete life cycle, with a seasonal or nearly seasonal sexual reproduction, and primarily age-dependent variation in demographic traits.
  
  
  2. The demographic differences among Vertebrates can naturally be ordered on a "slow- fast gradient" best measured by generation time. From short-lived rodents to cetaceans or sea turtles, the change in generation time is at least 300-fold.
  
  
  3. This variation is strongly linked in an allometric fashion to body weight within groups of species sharing a common general body "ground design", with major differences among groups (e.g., Chiroptera - Bats- vs Rodents; Anseriforms - Ducks, Geese and Swans- vs Procellariiforms (Albatross and related seabirds).
  
  
  4. In relation with the allocation of energetic resources, maximum population growth rate is inversely related to generation time, the longest lived species having thus the smallest maximum growth rate, and as a consequence, the smallest resilience to extra sources of mortality. Together with behavioral and physio-energetic features, this demographic sensitivity induces a genuine "malediction of long-lived species" in face of human activities, with many different illustrations, including the overfishing of stocks of large fish. It is particularly striking that the 5 species of Hominids beside Man are classified as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Over the last 5 centuries, more than one species of Vertebrate got extinct each year.
  
  
  5. Besides the dominant role of age, demographic heterogeneity within age classes has been shown as to be present in a growing number of Vertebrate species and may be quite general.
  
  
  6. Dispersal patterns are less widely known, but clearly show a prominent role of dispersal between birth and first reproduction, with a stronger dispersion of males or females, depending mostly on the class of Vertebrates considered.
  
  

  
  

  I discuss implications of these demographic characteristics of Vertebrate in a changing world, in particular in relation with climate change and the fragmentation of habitats.