Implications of improving survival estimates
Data on survival probability are crucial for demographic modeling
(Carey, 1993). Our results show that HSV
improved the estimates of survival probability in both species. Such
improvement can increase the reliability of our predictions of
population trends (Carey, 2001). Many
scientists are interested in the effect of age on survival to
investigate evolutionary theories related to senescence
(Bonduriansky & Brassil, 2002;
Sherratt et al., 2010;
Sherratt, Hassall, Laird, Thompson, &
Cordero-Rivera, 2011; Zajitschek,
Zajitschek, & Bonduriansky, 2020). While this is theoretically
feasible with CMR of wild population of insects, field studies based on
the naked eye yield low-resolution data (low resighting rates) which
prevents accurate predictions. In our study, we showed that HSV reduced
the uncertainty around survival estimates across age and made the
age-dependent survival pattern more detectable. Similarly, HSV improved
our estimates of body size effects on survival probability. This is
particularly important because body size has been the focus of many
studies in evolutionary biology and ecology
(LaBarbera, 1989;
Blanckenhorn, 2000;
Ozgul, Bateman, English, Coulson, &
CluttonâBrock, 2014).