Data from: How density dependence, genetic erosion, and the extinction vortex impact evolutionary rescue

Following severe environmental change that reduces mean population fitness
below replacement, populations must adapt to avoid eventual extinction, a
process called evolutionary rescue. Models of evolutionary rescue
demonstrate that initial size, genetic variation, and degree of
maladaptation influence population fates. However, many models feature
populations that grow without negative density dependence or with constant
genetic diversity despite precipitous population decline, assumptions
likely to be violated in conservation settings. We examined the
simultaneous influences of density-dependent growth and erosion of genetic
diversity on populations adapting to novel environmental change using
stochastic, individual-based simulations. Density dependence decreased the
probability of rescue and increased the probability of extinction,
especially in large and initially well-adapted populations that previously
have been predicted to be at low risk. Increased extinction occurred
shortly following environmental change, as populations under density
dependence experienced more rapid decline and reached smaller sizes.
Populations that experienced evolutionary rescue lost genetic diversity
through drift and adaptation, particularly under density dependence.
Populations that declined to extinction entered an extinction vortex,
where small size increased drift, loss of genetic diversity, and the
fixation of maladaptive alleles, hindered adaptation, and kept populations
at small densities where they were vulnerable to extinction via
demographic stochasticity.