Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Ecology

Evolution in population dynamics

Nature volume 424, pages 257–258 (2003)Cite this article

In their study of predator–prey cycles, investigators have assumed that they do not need to worry about evolution. The discovery of population cycles driven by evolutionary factors will change that view.

Ecologists studying population dynamics prefer not to bother with the possibility of evolutionary change affecting their study organisms. This is sensible, because understanding the results of interactions between, for example, populations of predators and prey is already a complicated task. Making the assumption that evolutionary processes are too slow on ecological scales greatly eases the task of modelling the commonly observed population oscillations. But an elegant study by Yoshida et al.1 (page 303 of this issue) decisively demonstrates that this simplification might no longer be tenable.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1

T. YOSHIDA & R. WAYNE

Figure 2: Phase shifts between prey (green curve) and predators (red curve).

References

  1. Yoshida, T., Jones, L. E., Ellner, S. P., Fussman, G. F. & Hairston, N. G. Jr Nature 424, 303–306 (2003).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. May, R. M. in Theoretical Ecology: Principles and Applications 2nd edn (ed. May, R. M.) 5–29 (Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Fussmann, G. F., Ellner, S. P., Shertzer, K. W. & Hairston, N. G. Jr Science 290, 1358–1360 (2000).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Edelstein-Keshet, L. Mathematical Models in Biology (Random House, New York, 1988).

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Shertzer, K. W., Ellner, S. P., Fussman, G. F. & Hairston, N. G. Jr. Anim. Ecol. 71, 802–815 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Berryman, A. A. & Millstein, J. A. Trends Ecol. Evol. 4, 26–28 (1989).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Tidd, C. W., Olsen, L. F. & Schaffer, W. M. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 254, 257–273 (1993).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Turchin, P. Complex Population Dynamics: A Theoretical/Empirical Synthesis (Princeton Univ. Press, 2003).

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Hanski, I. et al. Ecology 82, 1505–1520 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, 06269, Connecticut, USA

    Peter Turchin

Authors
  1. Peter Turchin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Turchin, P. Evolution in population dynamics. Nature 424, 257–258 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424257a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/424257a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing