This work is the fruit of a collaboration involving Xavier Lambin, Madan Oli, Mike Begon, and the heroic, superhuman, field sampling efforts of Sandra Telfer, James MacKinnon, Isla Graham, and Sarah Burthe (Universities of Aberdeen, Florida and Liverpool).

Oddly, debates on the demographic phenomenon that underpin multi-annual cycles have largely taken place in the absence of demographic data. The prediction that variation in predation rate should cause variation in survival rate over population cycles had remained untested. We refuted it strongly.

We analysed 10 years of capture recapture data collected monthly, spanning all seasons and phases of 3 population cycles. We estimated survival and recruitments rate and their contributions to changes in population growth rate between cycles phases in early, mid, late breeding seasons and winter.

For 101 years, ecologists have sought to explain the 3-4 years multi-annual cycles of voles and lemmings. In our paper, doi.org/10.1073/pnas..., we find that Density-dependent recruitment, but not survival drives cyclic dynamics in a field vole population, overturning accepted wisdom.

Join us as @QUADRATdtp PhD candidate to learn and research population dynamics, demography and dispersal, working with lovely Tawny owls,
with @Paulcaplat.bsky.social, @Chrissuthy.bsky.social and my brilliant, supportive, interactive team within UoABioSci
findaphd.com/phds/project/q…