Theoretical Ecology

Per Lundberg, NCEAS, University of California, California, USA

Published online: May 2005

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0003264

Theoretical ecology is the study of the fundamental forces and processes determining the course of evolution and how ecological systems are assembled and maintained. Theoretical ecology therefore typically encompasses almost all levels of biological organization (from genes to ecosystems). Theoretical ecology progresses under the common scientific attitude that we indeed are able to reveal generalities and law-like behaviours of nature despite the overwhelming diversity of life on Earth.

Keywords: theory; data; mathematical models; evolution

Figure 1. The yield from population harvesting as a function of the parameter h (the harvest rate) in the harvesting model. The yield curve is dome-shaped with a peak (indicated by arrows) at the optimal harvest rate, i.e. the harvest rate that maximizes the yield. The upper curve is a situation with high per capita reproduction in the population; the lower curve is for low per capita reproduction.
Figure 2. The dynamics of a hypothetical population over time when the population growth rate varies randomly from year to year. Twenty-five different realizations of the population dynamics over 50 time steps (e.g. years) are shown. All simulations were initiated at a population size of 100 (the horizontal line). For each time step and for each of the twenty-five examples, the population growth rate R is drawn from a normal distribution with mean equal to 1 and a variance of 10% of the mean.
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 Further Reading
    book Bulmer MG (1994) Theoretical Evolutionary Ecology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.
    book Case TJ (2000) An Illustrated Guide to Theoretical Ecology. New York: Oxford University Press.
    book Caswell H (2001) Matrix Population Models 2nd edn. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.
    book Ford ED (2000) Scientific Method for Ecological Research. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
    book Hastings A (1997) Population Biology: Concepts and Models. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
    book Hilborn R and Mangel M (1997) The Ecological Detective. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    book Pickett STA, Kolasa J and Jones CG (1994) Ecological Understanding. New York, NY: Academic Press.
    book Real LA and Brown JH (eds) (1991) Foundations of Ecology. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
    book Roughgarden J (1998) A Primer of Theoretical Ecology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
    book Roughgarden J, May RM and Levin SA (1989) Perspectives in Ecological Theory.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Related Sub-Topics:

General Ecology
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Article Title: Theoretical Ecology
 
How to Cite close
Lundberg, Per(May 2005) Theoretical Ecology. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0003264]