The effect of skewed distributions of vital statistics on growth of age-structured populations

Given that the variance of vital statistics can influence population projections, it seems reasonable that positive skew as observed for the distribution of larval survivorship of spruce budworms might also have a significant effect on stochastic projections of population growth. Simulations of population growth, using variable survivorship for a single age class, demonstrate that shape of the distribution of survivorship influences the outcome of stochastic population growth, and therefore is important for evolutionary and ecological theory. Unfortunately, empirical distributions of survivorships or fecundities for single life history stages are rare in the current literature.