The application of information theory (IT) to ecology has occurred along two separate lines: (1) it has been used to quantify the distribution of stocks and numbers of organisms; and (2) it has been employed to quantify the pattern of interactions of trophic processes. By and large, the first endeavor has resulted in relatively few insights into ecosystem dynamics and has generated much ambigui...

In general, the three-step population master equation is used by physicists in many studies of diffusion processes of microscopic particles on one-dimensional lattices [1], but this simple discrete equation has extensive and interesting applications in other fields as well, most recently to Hubbell’s neutral theory in ecology [2]. In the following, we shall use a population interpretation. It r...

Social network theory is used to elicit details of the social structure of a population of free-ranging guppies, Poecilia reticulata. They were found to have a complex and highly structured social network, which exhibited characteristics consistent with the 'small world' phenomenon. Stable partner associations between individuals were observed, a finding that fulfils the basic prerequisite for ...

Behaviour can be a key component of animal population ecology yet the population consequences of behavioural decisions are poorly understood. We conducted a behavioural and demographic study of the bitterling Rhodeus sericeus, a freshwater fish that spawns in live unionid mussels. We used a population model incorporating game theory decisions and measurements of demographic parameters in order ...

Article history: Received 22 November 2005 Received in revised form 8 March 2006 Accepted 12 March 2006 In all natural populations, individuals located close to one another tend to interact more than those further apart. The extent of population viscosity can have important implications for ecological and evolutionary processes. Here we develop a spatially explicit population model to examine h...

Calangos is an under development educational game based on the fauna and flora of the desert-like field of the sand dunes in the middle São Francisco River, located within the Caatinga biome in Brazil. One of the player’s goals is to manage the behavior of species of lizards that inhabit this biome, with consequences to their ecology and evolution. For the development of the game, a prototype, ...

To resolve a panselectionist paradox, the population geneticist Kimura invented a neutral theory, where each gene is equally likely to enter the next generation whatever its allelic type. To learn what could be explained without invoking Darwinian adaptive divergence, Hubbell devised a similar neutral theory for forest ecology, assuming each tree is equally likely to reproduce whatever its spec...

Continuum limits in the form of stochastic differential equations are typically used theoretical population genetics to account for genetic drift or more generally, inherent randomness model. In evolutionary game theory and ecology, however, this method is less frequently study demographic stochasticity. Here, we review use continuum ecology evolution. Starting with an individual-based model, d...

Nutrient acquisition is a major context for ecological interactions among species but ecologists and nutritionists have developed theory in isolation from each other. Developments in agent-based modelling, state-space modelling of nutrition and multi-scale modelling of landscape ecology provide the components for a new synthesis in nutritional ecology linking the nutritional biology of individu...

a Finnish Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Biology, Department of Biosciences, P.O. Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1), FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland b Finnish Museum of Natural History, FI-00014University of Helsinki, Finland c Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku d School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 4041, South Africa e Instituto de In...