Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation

Random fluctuations in population dynamics are fundamentally important in pure and applied ecology.

This book introduces demographic and environmental stochasticity and illustrates statistical methods for estimating them from field data. The concept of the long-run growth rate of a population is explained and extended to age-structured populations. Diffusion approximations show how stochastic factors affect extinction in single populations and metapopulations.

Delayed density dependence in populations with discrete annual reproduction is estimated from a time series of adult numbers combined with basic life history data. The spatial scale of population fluctuations and local extinction risk depend on the scales of spatial environmental autocorrelation and individual dispersal, and the strength of density dependence.

Stochastic dynamics and statistical uncertainty in population parameters are incorporated in Population Viability Analysis and sustainable harvesting. 

Statistics of species diversity measures and species abundance distributions are described, with implications for rapid assessments of biodiversity, and methods are developed for partitioning species diversity into components. Analysis of stochastic community dynamics indicates that real communities are far from neutral.


Author: Russell Lande, Steinar Engen, Bernt-Erik Saether
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 06/05/2003
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.16w x 0.52d
ISBN: 9780198525257

About the Author

Professor Lande is the winner of the Sewall Wright Award (1992), President, Society for the Study of Evolution, 1997, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1997-, MacArthur Foundation Fellow, 1997-2002.

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