Understanding demographic responses to mortality is crucial to predictive ecology. While classic ecological theory posits reductions in population biomass in response to extrinsic mortality, models containing realistic developmental change predict the potential for counterintuitive increase in stage‐specific biomass, i.e. biomass overcompensation. Patterns of biomass overcompensation should be predictable based on differences in the relative energetic efficiencies of juvenile maturation and adult reproduction. Specifically, in populations where reproduction is the limiting process, adult‐specific mortality should enhance total reproduction and thus juvenile biomass. We tested this prediction by inducing an array of stage‐specific harvesting treatments across replicate populations of Daphnia pulex. In accordance with reproductive regulation, the greatest biomass response occurred in the juvenile Daphnia stage and this response occurred most strongly in response to adult mortality. Nevertheless, we failed to detect significant biomass overcompensation and instead report largely compensatory effects. In total, our work demonstrates that knowledge of population structure is necessary to accurately predict population dynamics, but cautions that further research is needed to illuminate the factors generating over‐compensatory versus compensatory responses across natural populations.

中文翻译：

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个体发育是人口对死亡率的反应基础

了解人口对死亡率的反应对于预测生态至关重要。虽然经典的生态学理论认为外在死亡率会导致种群生物量减少，但包含现实发展变化的模型预测阶段特异性生物量的反直观增加潜力，即生物量过度补偿。生物量过度补偿的模式应可根据少年成熟和成年繁殖的相对能量效率差异来预测。特别是，在繁殖是限制过程的人群中，成年特定死亡率应提高总繁殖量，从而提高幼年生物量。我们通过诱导水蚤重复种群的一系列特定阶段的收获处理来检验这一预测。根据生殖调节，最大的生物量反应发生在幼年的水蚤阶段，并且这种反应在对成年死亡率的反应中最强烈。但是，我们未能检测到明显的生物量过度补偿，而是报告了较大的补偿效应。总的来说，我们的工作表明，要准确预测种群动态，必须具备种群结构知识，但要注意，需要进一步研究以阐明自然种群中产生过度补偿与补偿反应的因素。