eBook

Complex Population Dynamics

Turchin, Peter

2013

Overview

Why do organisms become extremely abundant one year and then seem to disappear a few years later? Why do population outbreaks in particular species happen more or less regularly in certain locations, but only irregularly (or never at all) in other locations? Complex population dynamics have fascinated biologists for decades. By bringing together mathematical models, statistical analyses, and field experiments, this book offers a comprehensive new synthesis of the theory of population oscillations. Peter Turchin first reviews the conceptual tools that ecologists use to investigate population oscillations, introducing population modeling and the statistical analysis of time series data. He then provides an in-depth discussion of several case studies--including the larch budmoth, southern pine beetle, red grouse, voles and lemmings, snowshoe hare, and ungulates--to develop a new analysis of the mechanisms that drive population oscillations in nature. Through such work, the author argues, ecologists can develop general laws of population dynamics that will help turn ecology into a truly quantitative and predictive science. Complex Population Dynamics integrates theoretical and empirical studies into a major new synthesis of current knowledge about population dynamics. It is also a pioneering work that sets the course for ecology's future as a predictive science.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: Accuracy and precision / Additive white Gaussian noise / Attractor / Autocorrelation / Balance of nature / Bayesian / Bayesian information criterion / Biological Sciences / Biology / Biomass (ecology) / Butterfly effect / Case study / Cross-validation (statistics) / Density dependence / Earth Sciences / Ecology / Estimation / Exponential growth / Forecasting / Free parameter / Functional response / Genetic drift / Geography / Habitat fragmentation / Herbivore / Initial condition / Law of mass action / Least squares / Least weasel / Leslie matrix / Life Sciences / Limit cycle / Logistic map / Lotka–Volterra equations / Lyapunov exponent / Maternal effect / Negative binomial distribution / Negative feedback / Nonparametric regression / Paradox of enrichment / Parameter / Parasitism / Parasitoid / Partial autocorrelation function / Pheromone / Polynomial regression / Population / Population biology / Population bottleneck / Population control / Population cycle / Population decline / Population dynamics / Population ecology / Population process / Predation / Prediction / Proportionality (mathematics) / Quantity / Random element / Rate of convergence / Red grouse / Ricker model / Rodent / SCIENCE / SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology / Seasonality / Spline (mathematics) / State variable / Stationary distribution / Stochastic / Strong inference / Time series / Vegetation / Vital rates / Vole / Year
• ISBN: 9781400847280, 1400847281, 0691090211, 9780691090214