2026-04-14T06:49:53Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:2072/4815732026-01-16T07:56:13Zcom_2072_352787com_2072_351515com_2072_1741col_2072_352789

Continent-wide drivers of spatial synchrony in breeding demographic structure across wild great tit populations Woodman, Joe P. Senar, Juan Carlos Sheldon, Ben C. Ocells Passeriformes Mallerenga carbonera Poblacions animals 59 Variation in age structure influences population dynamics, yet we have limited understanding of the spatial scale at which its fluctuations are synchronised between populations. Using 32 great tit populations, spanning 4° W–33° E and 35°–65° N involving > 130,000 birds across 67 years, we quantify spatial synchrony in breeding demographic structure (subadult vs. adult breeders) and its drivers. We show that larger clutch sizes, colder winters, and larger beech crops lead to younger populations. We report distance-dependent synchrony of demographic structure, maintained at approximately 650 km. Despite covariation with demographic structure, we do not find evidence for environmental variables influencing the scale of synchrony, except for beech masting. We suggest that local ecological and density-dependent dynamics impact how environmental variation interacts with demographic structure, influencing estimates of the environment's effect on synchrony. Our analyses demonstrate the operation of synchrony in demographic structure over large scales, with implications for age-dependent demography in populations. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2025-02-18 info:eu-repo/semantics/article http://hdl.handle.net/2072/481573 https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70079 eng Ecology Letters, vol. 28 (2025), e70079 © 2025 The Author(s). Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 13 p. application/pdf RECERCAT (Dipòsit de la Recerca de Catalunya)