Book Description
Animal population densities are thought to be "regulated" by density-dependent processes (Haldane, 1953; Royama, 1977: Berryman, 1991). The perceived importance of these processes to biologists is evident from the vast amount of research dedicated to this idea (Inchausti, 1994). Most of this research addresses the problem(s) of detecting the effect of density-dependent regulatory processes using time series data. However, the question of the relative importance of density-dependent factors upon rates of change of population abundances is rarely addressed. In this thesis, I quantify the importance of density-dependent factors in 303 natural animal populations. I found that, on average, only $\approx$19% of the temporal variability in per capita growth rate could be statistically related to population density. Yet research effort concentrates overwhelmingly on density-dependent processes. I conclude that the effects of density-dependent processes within natural animal populations are generally weak and disproportionately studied.