Increased natural mortality at low abundance can generate an Allee effect in amarine fish

Abstract

Negative density dependent regulation of population dynamics promotes population growth at low abundance and is therefore vital for recovery following depletion. Inversely, any process that reduces the compensatory density-dependence of population growth can negatively affect recovery. Here, we show that increased adult mortality at low abundance can reverse compen-satory population dynamics into its opposite a demographic Allee effect.