Table 1.

Evidence for density dependence using phenomenological time series data

		wAICc					%DD
Time series era	q	RW	EX	RL	GL	TL	ΣwAICc
High-density (1951–1964)	10	0.187	0.039	0.372	0.383	0.019	77.4
Low-density (1993–1999)	21	0.081	0.025	0.412	0.380	0.101	89.3

Sample-size corrected Akaike weights (wAIC_c) and the number of yearly transitions (q) for density-independent models: random walk (RW), and exponential (EX), and density-dependent models: Ricker-logisitc (RL), Gompertz logistic (GL), and θ-logisitc (TL), of the population growth of southern elephant seals during the high-density era and low-density eras. The sum of the AIC_c weights for the density-dependent models represents the combined percentage support for density dependence (%DD).