Skip to main content
Fig. 2 | BMC Evolutionary Biology

Fig. 2

From: The sensitivity of a honeybee colony to worker mortality depends on season and resource availability

Fig. 2

Elasticity of colony growth rate to forager mortality. Forager mortality is represented as a Gompertz-Makeham function, with γf as the age-independent component of forager mortality, αf as the initial age-dependent component of forager mortality, and βf, the age-dependent increase in forager mortality. Colonies are least elastic to forager age-independent mortality in winter (low extrinsic mortality, low forager productivity, low forager transition rate) and most elastic in summer (high extrinsic mortality, high forager productivity, high forager transition rate), with spring/fall (intermediate extrinsic mortality, intermediate forager productivity, high forager transition rate) elasticity being intermediate between that of summer and winter. In contrast, colonies are most elastic to forager age-dependent mortality in winter and least elastic in summer, with spring/fall elasticity again being intermediate. Colonies are also most elastic to the age-dependent increase in forager mortality in winter and least elastic in summer, with spring/fall elasticity being intermediate but closer to that of summer. Note that to make seasonal differences more visible, the y-axis scale is larger in this figure than that in Fig. 1. For full parameter values, see Additional file 1: Table S1

Back to article page