Population dynamics articles from across Nature Portfolio

We developed a mathematical framework that maps survival data onto cellular damage dynamics, which revealed two distinct aging regimes across species. This unified model explains why and how aging patterns diverge and provides a quantitative basis for comparing aging in model organisms and extrapolating findings to human biology.

Sediment loads present on Florida’s reefs are impeding the recovery of coral populations by inhibiting larval settlement and reducing the survivorship of recruits for multiple reef-building coral species.

Biodiversity indicators are essential for tracking progress towards international biodiversity goals, but existing indicators have important shortcomings and are not based on animal movement data. This Perspective outlines why incorporating movement data into biodiversity indicators can help to address these shortcomings, improve monitoring and inform effective conservation actions.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are among the greatest threats to biodiversity. Here the authors show that habitat quality of the surrounding landscape can also affect demographic rates and population size, especially where habitat loss and fragmentation are low.

Raz and colleagues fit survival data across species to a stochastic model of damage accumulation and removal. They report that damage production rate best predicts lifespan and reveal two distinct aging regimes: ballistic in short-lived species and quasi-steady-state in mammals.

The role of giant viruses in freshwater habitats is less well studied. Here, using metagenomes collected over 20 years in Lake Mendota, the authors show that giant virus genomes adapt to environmental change via gene duplication and horizontal gene transfer, revealing genomic stability and increased virus-host interactions.

We developed a mathematical framework that maps survival data onto cellular damage dynamics, which revealed two distinct aging regimes across species. This unified model explains why and how aging patterns diverge and provides a quantitative basis for comparing aging in model organisms and extrapolating findings to human biology.

Were there catastrophic population collapses across Europe in the late Neolithic and, if so, what factors were responsible? Ancient DNA from 133 people whose remains were interred in a megalithic gallery grave may shed light on this question.

An analysis of hundreds of fish biomass surveys shows that warmer years combined with marine heatwaves can enhance regional population abundances in the cold edges of species’ biogeographical distributions, but contribute to population declines at warmer latitudes.

Analysis of marine fish populations reveals that nonlinear dynamics are widespread and that the degree of nonlinearity is elevated by high temperature variation and for species with fast life histories. These findings support the nonlinear amplification hypothesis and challenge assumptions of stable equilibrium dynamics commonly used in ecology studies and in fisheries management.