Table 6

Model ranking for models estimating age-specific survival and recapture probability as a function of environmental stochasticity and population density

Model
ΔQAICc
wQAICc
k

High density (1951–1964)



ϕ(age-mother*t/mother*t) p(t)
0.000
0.995
19
ϕ(age-pup*t/pup*t) p(t)
11.300
0.004
24
ϕ(mother*t) p(t)
14.330
0.001
21
ϕ(pup*t) p(t)
16.130
<0.001
21
ϕ(age-density/t) p(t)
17.810
<0.001
15




Low density (1993–1999)



ϕ(age-mother*t/mother*t) p(t)
0.000
0.551
22
ϕ(mother*t) p(t)
1.640
0.242
17
ϕ(age-t/mother*t) p(t)
1.970
0.206
23
ϕ(age-pup*t/pup*t) p(t)
13.050
0.001
20
ϕ(age-density+mother*t/density+mother*t) p(t)
14.200
<0.001
12

Effects of age (age-juvenile/adult), time (t), density of breeding females (density), density of breeding females lagged by one year (dlag) and environmental conditions (SOI during a newly weaned seal's foraging period [pup] and during a mother's pre-partum foraging period [mother] on the probability of survival (ϕ) of southern elephant seals during the high- (1951–1964) and low-density (1993–1999) eras. Models are ranked according to their Akaike weights (wQAICc), the relative change in AICc score (ΔQAICc), and number of parameters (k), based on an inflation factor (ĉ) of 1.7122.

de Little et al. BMC Ecology 2007 7:3   doi:10.1186/1472-6785-7-3