Topics in Theoretical Population Biology

The bulk of theoretical population biology has focused on long-term, asymptotic population dynamics for which tractable analytical solutions can be derived for particular questions. Following suit, the vast majority of empirical studies have focused on the established parameters provided by theory, such as the asymptotic population growth rate associated with a stable stage structure. But ‘there is nothing permanent [in natural environments] except change’ (Heraclitus), and thus there are good reasons to expect nonstable stage structures in real populations. The urgency of global change is indeed prompting increasing popularity of studying the transient dynamics caused by nonstable stage structures that occur before asymptotic dynamics are reached. This chapter provides an introduction to the concepts and analysis of transient dynamics using matrix projection models and ample examples.

Download Full-text

Illuminating women’s hidden contribution to the foundation of theoretical population genetics

10.1101/360933 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Samantha Kristin Dung ◽

Andrea López ◽

Ezequiel Lopez Barragan ◽

Rochelle-Jan Reyes ◽

Ricky Thu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Population Genetics ◽

Gender Gap ◽

Role Models ◽

Population Biology ◽

Evolutionary Genetics ◽

Numerical Work ◽

Early Computer ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Theoretical Population ◽

Theoretical Population Biology

AbstractPlentiful evidence shows an historic and continuing gender gap in participation and success in scientific research. However, less attention has been directed at clarifying obscured contributions of women to science. The lack of visible women role models (particularly in computational fields) contributes to a reduced sense of belonging and retention among women. We seek to counteract this cycle by illuminating the contribution of women programmers to the foundation of our own fields—population and evolutionary genetics. We consider past ‘acknowledged programmers’ (APs), who developed, ran, and sometimes analyzed the results of early computer programs. Due to authorship norms at the time, these programmers were credited in the acknowledgments sections of manuscripts, rather than being recognized as authors. For example, one acknowledgement reads “I thanks Mrs. M. Wu for help with the numerical work, and in particular for computing table I.”. We identified APs in Theoretical Population Biology articles published between 1970 and 1990. While only 7% of authors were women, 43% of APs were women. This significant difference (p = 4.0×10−10) demonstrates a substantial proportion of women’s contribution to foundational computational population genetics has been unrecognized. The proportion of women APs, as well as number of APs decreased over time. These observations correspond to the masculinization of computer programming, and the shifting of programming responsibilities to individuals credited as authors (likely graduate students). Finally, we note recurrent APs who contributed to several highly-cited manuscripts. We conclude that, while previously overlooked, historically, women have made substantial contributions to computational biology.

Download Full-text

Fifty years of Theoretical Population Biology

Theoretical Population Biology ◽

10.1016/j.tpb.2020.04.001 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 133 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Noah A. Rosenberg

Keyword(s):

Population Biology ◽

Theoretical Population ◽

Theoretical Population Biology

Download Full-text

Rich Bifurcation Structure of Prey–Predator Model Induced by the Allee Effect in the Growth of Generalist Predator

International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos ◽

10.1142/s0218127420500844 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (06) ◽

pp. 2050084 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Deeptajyoti Sen ◽

Sergei Petrovskii ◽

S. Ghorai ◽

Malay Banerjee

Keyword(s):

Carrying Capacity ◽

Population Biology ◽

Allee Effect ◽

Building Blocks ◽

Generalist Predators ◽

Generalist Predator ◽

Specialist Predator ◽

Theoretical Population ◽

Local And Global Bifurcations ◽

Predator Model

Prey–predator models are building blocks for many food-chain and food-web models in theoretical population biology. These models can be divided into two groups depending on the nature of predators, namely, specialist predator and generalist predator. Generalist predators can survive in the absence of prey but specialist predators go to extinction. Prey–predator models with specialist predator and Allee effect in prey growth have been investigated by several researchers and various types of interesting dynamics have been reported. In this paper, we consider a prey–predator model with generalist predator subject to Allee effect in predator’s growth rate. In general, a prey–predator system with saturating functional response can be destabilized due to the increase of the carrying capacity of prey which is known as paradox of enrichment. In our model with Allee effect in predator growth, we have shown that increase in carrying capacity of prey helps the populations to survive in a coexistence steady state. The considered model is capable of producing bistable dynamics for a reasonable range of parameter values. The complete dynamics of the system are quite rich and all possible local and global bifurcations are studied to understand the dynamics of the model. Analytical results are verified with numerical examples and successive bifurcations are identified with the help of bifurcation diagrams.

Download Full-text