Seed size was not significantly related to either AZD4547 in vitro contribution values or elasticities. Values of stochastic elasticity to the variance (Esσ) were negative for all species, indicating that increased variability of survival and recruitment would result in a decrease of λs for all species (Table 4). Furthermore, Esσ was much larger for recruitment than for survival in all 10 species (Table 4). Among all the species, the relative effect of total variability in the life cycle on λs was higher in species with greater historical variability in recruitment (Fig. 2, ρ = 0.78, P = 0.01). Generation time was significantly correlated with the elasticities to changes in the variance of matrix elements (Fig. 3). Species with shorter generation times showed a higher total elasticity to variance over all life stages (ρ = −0.68, P = 0.03, Fig. 3), a pattern entirely driven by the elasticity to variance in recruitment (ρ = −0.70, P = 0.02). A similar pattern was found between expected life span and total elasticity variance, though the correlation was not statistically significant (ρ = −0.42, P = 0.22). The pattern of species responses to changes in the mean of survival and recruitment was similar to that observed for changes in the variance. Species with longer generation times had larger elasticities to changes in mean survival (ρ = 0.66, P = 0.04) and lower elasticities to changes in mean recruitment (ρ = −0.83, P = 0.003). Over all life stages, the total elasticity to changes in the mean of vital rates was higher in species with longer generation times (ρ = −0.68, P = 0.04). As with the elasticity to the variance, a similar pattern was observed between expected life span and total elasticity to the mean, but the relationship was not statistically significant (ρ = −0.57, P = 0.08). There was no relationship between seed size and any of the elasticities we measured. For all 10 forb species, recruitment consistently had higher contribution and elasticity values than survival. Although all 10 of our study species are perennials, their expected life span and generation times are all < 2 years, and it is not surprising that, like annuals, recruitment was the dominant influence on population growth rates. We found support for our first hypothesis that the relative importance of recruitment and survival to these species’ population growth was related to life-history traits, especially generation time. As generation time increased, contribution and elasticity values for survival increased, although they always remained lower than contribution and elasticity values for recruitment. An implication of this result is that for short-lived species such as our forbs, the potential impacts of climate change should be largest at the recruitment stage.