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Gardening requests - Printable Version

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Gardening requests - DanV-AOP - 02 Mar 2022

I have created a new thread for forum users to identify issues for the gardeners to look into:


RE: Gardening requests - sandrine.frelon@irsn.fr - 04 Mar 2022

Dear all, 

We are currently in search for a relevant key event for the population on AOP-Wiki and after reviewing the existing terminology in AOP Wiki, we want to draw your attention on the use of “Population trajectory” as a population key event (KE 679, 686, 360, 442). We have reviewed its use in AOP-wiki, and we have some questions and suggestions about it.

First, we wonder what exactly is the meaning of the “Population trajectory”. To our understanding, “Population trajectory” describes the variations of a population-level outcome over time. Because a wide range of endpoints, including growth rate, demographic distribution, sex ratio, genetic diversity etc. follow trajectories at the population level, we believe that the name/title is vague and confusing, whereas it should refer to a single, well-defined “biological object or process”.

Second, “Population trajectory” is always associated to “decrease, decreased, decreasing” in the AOP-wiki. In general, trajectories (of growth rate, demographic distribution, sex ratio, genetic diversity) include phases of increase and decrease over the seasonal cycle. In this situation, we think that “Population trajectory decrease(s)” is a confusing terminology. If the underlying meaning is evolutionary trajectory, then possibly, one can say that “Population fitness decreases”, but this is a complex question to address. Alternately, one can say that “Population trajectory” is “altered”.

Finally, many different AOP-wiki contributors have employed  “Population trajectory” for their AOPs. Most cases (KE 360, 361, 442, 679, 686, 1136) actually point the same “population growth rate” process, using different KEs and short names. In this situation, we suggest using “population growth rate decrease” as a short name for a single KE, merging these various KEs. In fact, a reduction in fecundity rates or in survival rates at the organism-level leads to a reduction in lambda, the asymptotic population growth rate (per individual), so the terminology is correct and the process is defined accurately. Last but not least, population growth rate lambda is often used as an index for population fitness (among other potential proxys, including population size, R0 etc.).

Many thanks in advance for your feedbacks,