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The May threshold and life-history allometry

Ginzburg, Lev R., Burger, Oskar F., Damuth, John (2010) The May threshold and life-history allometry. Biology Letters, 6 (6). pp. 850-853. ISSN 1744-9561. E-ISSN 1744-957X. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0452) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:53672)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0452

Abstract

One of Robert May's classic results was finding that population dynamics become chaotic when the average lifetime rate of reproduction exceeds a certain value. Populations whose reproductive rates exceed this May threshold probably become extinct. The May threshold in each case depends upon the shape of the density-dependence curve, which differs among models of population growth. However, species of different sizes and generation times that share a roughly similar density-dependence curve will also share a similar May threshold. Here, we argue that this fact predicts a striking allometric regularity among animal taxa: lifetime reproductive rate should be roughly independent of body size. Such independence has been observed in diverse taxa, but has usually been ascribed to a fortuitous combination of physiologically based life-history allometries. We suggest, instead, that the ecological elimination of unstable populations within groups that share a value of the May threshold is a likely cause of this allometry.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0452
Additional information: Unmapped bibliographic data: DA - 2010/// [EPrints field already has value set] DP - Google Scholar [Field not mapped to EPrints] L2 - http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/06/28/rsbl.2010.0452.full [Field not mapped to EPrints]
Uncontrolled keywords: population growth rate; lifetime reproduction; chaos; body size; population extinction; ecological elimination
Subjects: V Naval Science
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Oskar Burger
Date Deposited: 11 Jan 2016 12:10 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:22 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/53672 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Burger, Oskar F..

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