Questions tagged [population-biology]
Questions pertaining to populations of organisms.
21
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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How does the population fitness change after a change in mutation rate?
The mean population fitness as given by mutation load theory depends only on the genome-wide mutation rate ($U$). My question is: How many generations is needed to reach a new mutation load ...
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Mutation-Selection-Drift Equilibrium
mutation-selection-drift equilibrium is one of the most important concept of population genetics. I could easily find the calculations for mutation-secltion equilibrium and for mutation-drift ...
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$F_{ST}$ and the genetic variance in metapopulations
From this video (21'15''), the speaker gives the following formulae in order to calculate the between and among populations genetic variance from the $F_{ST}$:
$$V_{Among Pop} = 2 F_{ST}V_G$$
$$V_{...
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Is there any example, where cooperative behaviour of predators induce fear in prey population?
I am basically from math background and doing Ph.D in mathematical biology. So I am not so efficient in biology. But my problem based on cooperative behaviour of animals during hunting which is ...
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What is the effective population size of a simple two deme metapopulation?
I am confused as to how to compute the effective population size $N_e$ of a theoretical structured population. Let's consider here a simple case study.
Imagine a 2-deme metapopulation. Each deme is ...
- 68k
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Understanding the meaning of $s$ and $t$ in a population genetics equation
Sewall Wright in this article (1937) at the end of page 313 gives the equation:
$$\Delta q = (s+tq)q(1-q) \space\space\space\space\space\space\space\space\space(1)$$
This equation is an ...
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Range for which the Verhulst-Pearl model is a good approximate
The Verhulst-Pearl model describes the growth of a population using the differential equation,
$$\frac{dN}{dt}=rN \left(\frac{K-N}{K} \right)$$
where N is the population (no. of organisms), r, the ...
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Sampling of Species counting same member of species twice
As part of the biology class, we performed a sample on the number of red squirrels in a forest a few miles away from the classroom to estimate its population.
When we returned to analyse our data, we ...
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Population-biology, migration-patterns, & ethology of the Big Five (elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards, & buffalo) in S. Africa's winter months?
I know that animals are unpredictable, but I also know that there are seasons in which the wildlife are more active. Now, August in South Africa is still their winter season, which is emerging into ...
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Ecological specialization and relative abundance
I am reading Evolution in Changing Environments by R. Levin but have a hard time.
Claim
At page 25, Levin says as a conclusion
The more efficient a caste at meeting the contingency for which it ...
- 68k
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Variance in reproductive success and effective population size
Background
The effective population size $N_e$ is the size of the Wright-Fisher population that experience the same amount of drift than the population under consideration.
The higher the variance ...
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Analytical Methods for Estimating Probability of Fixation
The probability of fixation $P$ of an allele is an very important measure and there exists several solutions to estimate this probability. Each method has its own assumptions and it is often hard to ...
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Evolution equations of a 2-gender age-structure model?
This sounds a bit complicated but I want to grab more feelings on age-structured problems. Less than 2 days to the exam so I appreciate any help.
So suppose we get 4 age classes in a population census ...
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Calculate growth rate of a population by Leslie matrix
We can calculate growth rate of a population by calculate the dominant eigen value of a Leslie matrix. What does this growth rate mean? I think that the growth rate N(t+1)/N(t) is depend on the age ...
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How does one calculate Rx/a in population genetics?
The ratio of sex-linked to autosome mutation frequencies (R) is Rx/a =(2/3)(2+ α)/(1+ α) for X-linked genes and Ry/a = 2 α /(1+ α) for Y-linked genes. How does one calculate Rx/a, in order to find α?
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How many animals inhabit the United States?
How many animals inhabit the United States and its waters? Not the number of species, but the number of individual animals. And since animals are diverse, maybe we can limit the estimate to just ...
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Effective population size of a metapopulation structured on a grid
Scenario
Consider a rectangular metapopulation consisting of $x \cdot y$ demes, where $x$ is the number of deme horizontally and $y$ is the number of demes vertically. The population size per deme is ...
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How important is the womb's environment?
- Background -
Talking about one phenotypic trait, the total phenotypic variance $V_p$ is decomposed into genetic and environmental variance for this trait, represented by the symbols $V_G$ and $V_E$ ...
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The evolution equations under different year classes of a age-structured model?
This sounds a bit complicated but I want to grab more feelings on age-structured problems. Less than 2 days to the exam so I appreciate any help.
So suppose we only get 3 year classes in a school at ...
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How can we calculate the constants of the SIR model?
I am not a biologist by profession, but I am attempting to implement a simple SIR model from the following paper. The paper assumes the following constants are known:
rc = growth rate of ...
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Could there be latent infections in the human population that we don't know of?
Herpes simplex 1 virus and toxoplasmosis are common infections that that many of use have (65% and 10% of americans, respectively). Both of these are chronic, latent infections that can occasionally ...
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