Are long-lived species more resistant to extreme disturbances (i. e. heat waves, fires, hurricanes, etc) than shorter-lived species? If I’m right, longevity is driven by survival rates. Therefore, I expect long-lived species to be more resistant to external disturbances (at least disturbances that were frequent in the past), unfortunately I haven't found any empirical evidence of this pattern. I’d welcome any reference related to this topic. Thanks.
Hi!
There is a lot of literature on seabirds relating this topic (Check a recent review here http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2014.00079/full). Most seabirds are long-lived and life history theory predicts that adult survival rates should be high and that climatic variability/environmental conditions should not affect this parameter as much as reproductive success, because they tend to maximize their survival by avoiding energy investement on breeding when conditions are bad. But recently, some papers argue that adult survival can also be affected by extrem weather events (such as El Nino events) and have severe impacts on the population dynamics of these species due to episodes of high adult mortality.
A very interesting article by a fellow RG member that may perhaps provide some answers. Short-lived species may still thrive by virtue of higher reproductive rates kicking in at an earlier age. The survival of the species may be due to an insular environment that creates a lack of predation pressure (island effect), as was probably the case with the mammoths initially. But once the climatic changes brought about an overlap in territories, the insufficient time for metabolic rates to adapt and the increased predation pressure brought about a quick extinction.
Article The fast life of a dwarfed giant
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