Ad
related to: population dynamics biology
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Population dynamics overlap with another active area of research in mathematical biology: mathematical epidemiology, the study of infectious disease affecting populations. Various models of viral spread have been proposed and analysed, and provide important results that may be applied to health policy decisions.
The first principle of population dynamics is widely regarded as the exponential law of Malthus, as modelled by the Malthusian growth model.The early period was dominated by demographic studies such as the work of Benjamin Gompertz and Pierre François Verhulst in the early 19th century, who refined and adjusted the Malthusian demographic model.
The development of population ecology owes much to the mathematical models known as population dynamics, which were originally formulae derived from demography at the end of the 18th and beginning of 19th century. [8] The beginning of population dynamics is widely regarded as the work of Malthus, [9] formulated as the Malthusian growth model.
When discussing population dynamics, behavioral ecology, and cell biology, recruitment refers to several different biological processes. In population dynamics, recruitment is the process by which new individuals are added to a population, whether by birth and maturation or by immigration. [1]
Population models are used to determine maximum harvest for agriculturists, to understand the dynamics of biological invasions, and for environmental conservation. Population models are also used to understand the spread of parasites, viruses, and disease. [2] Another way populations models are useful are when species become endangered.
The term population biology has been used with different meanings. In 1971, Edward O. Wilson et al. used the term in the sense of applying mathematical models to population genetics, community ecology, and population dynamics. [1] Alan Hastings used the term in 1997 as the title of his book on the mathematics used in population dynamics. [2]
Source–sink dynamics is a theoretical model used by ecologists to describe how variation in habitat quality may affect the population growth or decline of organisms. Since quality is likely to vary among patches of habitat, it is important to consider how a low quality patch might affect a population.
Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment. [15] It is the study of how the population sizes of species living together in groups change over time and space, and was one of the first aspects of ecology to be studied and modelled mathematically.