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1. Performance in a variable world: Using Jensen’s inequality to scale up from individuals to populations.

   https://doi.org/doi:10.1093/conphys/coz053  

   Denny, MW (January 2019, Conservation physiology)

   Body temperature affects plants’ and animals’ performance, but these effects are complicated by thermal variation through time within an individual and variation through space among individuals in a population. This review and synthesis describes how the effects of thermal variation—in both time and space—can be estimated by applying a simple, nonlinear averaging scheme. The method is first applied to the temporal variation experienced by an ndividual, providing an estimate of the individual’s average performance. The method is then applied to the scale-dependent thermal variation among individuals, which is modelled as a 1/f-noise phenomenon. For an individual, thermal variation reduces average performance, lowers the temperature of maximum performance (Topt) and contracts the range of viable temperatures. Thermal variation among individuals similarly reduces performance and lowers Topt, but increases the viable range of average temperatures. These results must be viewed with caution, however, because they do not take into account the time-dependent interaction between body temperature and physiological plasticity. Quantifying these interactions is perhaps the largest challenge for ecological and conservation physiologists as they attempt to predict the effects of climate change. 

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2. Physiological Trade-Offs in Lizards: Costs for Individuals and Populations

   https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icx062  

   Smith, Geoffrey D.; French, Susannah S. (August 2017, Integrative and Comparative Biology)
3. MELD × MD Folds Nonthreadables, Giving Native Structures and Populations

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.8b00886  

   Robertson, James C.; Perez, Alberto; Dill, Ken A. (November 2018, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation)
4. Scaling Up Endocrine Disruption Effects from Individuals to Populations: Outcomes Depend on How Many Males a Population Needs

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b05276  

   White, J. Wilson; Cole, Bryan J.; Cherr, Gary N.; Connon, Richard E.; Brander, Susanne M. (January 2017, Environmental Science & Technology)
5. Abalone populations are most sensitive to environmental stress effects on adult individuals

   https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13320  

   Aalto, EA; Barry, JP; Boch, CA; Litvin, SY; Micheli, F; Woodson, CB; De Leo, GA (June 2020, Marine Ecology Progress Series)

   null (Ed.)

   Marine organisms are exposed to stressors associated with climate change throughout their life cycle, but a majority of studies focus on responses in single life stages, typically early ones. Here, we examined how negative impacts from stressors associated with climate change, ocean acidification, and pollution can act across multiple life stages to influence long-term population dynamics and decrease resilience to mass mortality events. We used a continuous-size-structured density-dependent model for abalone ( Haliotis spp.), calcifying mollusks that support valuable fisheries, to explore the sensitivity of stock abundance and annual catch to potential changes in growth, survival, and fecundity across the organism’s lifespan. Our model predicts that decreased recruitment from lowered fertilization success or larval survival has small negative impacts on the population, and that stock size and fishery performance are much more sensitive to changes in parameters that affect the size or survival of adults. Sensitivity to impacts on subadults and juveniles is also important for the population, though less so than for adults. Importantly, likelihood of recovery following mortality events showed more pronounced sensitivity to most possible parameter impacts, greater than the effects on equilibrium density or catch. Our results suggest that future experiments on environmental stressors should focus on multiple life stages to capture effects on population structure and dynamics, particularly for species with size-dependent fecundity. 

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