Linked Questions
17 questions linked to/from What prevents predator overpopulation?
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If wolves (or foxes) are fitter than rabbits, why rabbits have not become extinct? [duplicate]
I do not pretend to "demolish" the Darwinian theory of biological evolution and the "survival of the fittest", that's far from my intention.
I have this doubt because of the fact that humanity, as ...
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Why haven't prey evolved the ability to always outrun their predators?
I can understand why some prey can't outrun a recently evolved species. However, since cheetahs have existed for so long, why haven't its prey evolved to always outrun it, driving cheetahs to ...
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What was the first piece of work in computational biology?
What was the first piece of work in computational biology? I'm ideally looking for a paper.
I am not interested in works that involve data management or data analysis but work that model biological ...
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Why are the fertility rates of large predators kept low?
Predators at the top of a food chain, like lions, seem to have a relatively low fertility rate, which fits well to the ecosystem and avoids overpredation. But what is the mechanism that keeps the ...
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Initial population when I count backwards?
My question deals with the number of ancestors it took to produce me:
--> To produce me, it took 2 people (my parents) = ($2^1$) people = 2
--> One generation further included = ($2^1 + 2^2$) ...
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Exponential growth equation and bacteria
I'm a microbiologist, but I'm teaching some ecology in my intro-level course, so when we got to population growth, I thought I'd use the example of a microbial population. But, I hit a strange problem ...
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Can predator-prey relationship be an example of negative feedback?
Predators eat their prey, prey population decreases. This results in the predator population to decrease, so less prey are consumed which causes the prey population to increase.
Therefore, if the ...
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Value of mathematical models in biology [closed]
Sorry if this is too much of a soft question or if it is too broad for this site.
As a person who has much more experience with math than biology, I've always been really interested in the ...
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Does an increased reproduction/mortality rate provide an evolutionary advantage?
If a species has a high mortality/birth rate, then it is able to adapt to changing environments more quickly than species that live for a long time.
Without a high mortality rate, food and other ...
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2
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References concerning the relative population sizes of predator and prey
In an ecosystem, say there are two species in a predator-prey relationship. What is the most typical ratio of these species' population densities? For instance, it could be that for every fox, there ...
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Examples of prey predator interactions where density of predator is very low and prey form groups when the predator attacks the prey for food
Examples of prey predator interactions where density of predator is very low (has a threat of extinction) and prey form groups when the predator attacks the prey for food.
I have searched this in ...
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Wasn't extinction of dinosaurs necessary? [closed]
Beginning from the triassic era, dinosaurs crawled for millions of years. So my basic idea is, that had the dinosaurs not been wiped out, they would have eaten all the flora on the planet then. ...
4
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Guide to learning about Population biology / ecology / dynamics for a non-Biologist
I'm an applied mathematician who works in the field of feedback control systems but has been becoming interested in looking at population biology (e.g. Lotka-Volterra, Mathusian growth,etc.) from a ...
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How to give a biological interpretation to this phase portrait?
Consider the following system and analyze its behavior.
$$\begin{array}{rl} \frac{dA}{dt} &= A \left( 2-\frac{A}{5000}-\frac{L}{100} \right)\\ \frac{dL}{dt} &= L \left(-\frac{1}{2}+\frac{A}{...
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How can a species switch from r to K - reproductive strategy in a single generation?
I ask because it seems as though humanity is in the midst of doing exactly this. Only a few decades ago, human population was growing exponentially, and it seemed destined to keep growing until ...
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