Date
In this lecture, Dr. Bill Fagan frames the key theories and methods used in population ecology. He presents as foundational issues in population ecology the relationships among individuals in a population and the dynamics that impact growth or decline within a population. He notes that population dynamics can be characterized by the null hypothesis of exponential population growth, and any other dynamics can be explained by the impact of factors like cooperation, competition, inter-species interactions, and resource limitations. He highlights the concepts used to characterize these factors, including discrete time models, the Allee Effect, positive and negative density dependence, and carrying capacity. He concludes by noting the data challenges associated with modeling density dependence in a population and also notes that population dynamics and the factors that influence those dynamics will change over space and time for a given population.
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About the Presenters
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William F. Fagan
Director of Research InnovationsDr. William (Bill) Fagan was part of the initial leadership team at SESYNC, helping to develop the ideas behind SESYNC, obtain National Science Foundation funding, and design the Center’s operational procedures. Bill served as Director for Research Innovation at SESYNC for two years, and in that role, he identified opportunities for synthesis research and recruited internationally respected scholars to conduct group research at the center. He also played a large role in coordinating interactions between SESYNC and its international partners, including the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental...
Image
William F. Fagan
Director of Research InnovationsDr. William (Bill) Fagan was part of the initial leadership team at SESYNC, helping to develop the ideas behind SESYNC, obtain National Science Foundation funding, and design the Center’s operational procedures. Bill served as Director for Research Innovation at SESYNC for two years, and in that role, he identified opportunities for synthesis research and recruited internationally respected scholars to conduct group research at the center. He also played a large role in coordinating interactions between SESYNC and its international partners, including the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDIV) in Germany. Bill is a Distinguished University Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Maryland. Over the years, he has worked on a diverse array of topics in theoretical ecology, conservation biology, and spatial ecology. He received his PhD from the University of Washington in Zoology in 1996.
External Links:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=lApw3oUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&pagesize=100 -
Supporting Materials
Presentation slides:
DocumentReading list:
Karieva, P., C. A. Mullen, and Sir Richard Southwood. “Population dynamics in spatially complex environments.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 330(1257) (1990): 175–190. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1990.0191