Fish and Wildlife Population Ecology  - Dr. Edward O. Garton

Wlf 541:  Advanced Population Biology

MWF 10:30-11:20 - CNR 203

Instructor: E. O. Garton, CNR 104E, 885-7426, (ogarton@uidaho.edu)
Teaching Assistant: Adam Wells,  CNR 109B, 885-7239, (well0358@vandals.uidaho.edu)

Office Hours: MF 9:30-10:30 a.m.
                      TTh 3:30-4:30 p.m. Other times by arrangement

Have you read the classic papers forming the foundation for modern theories of population ecology?   Participants in this class will have the opportunity to read and discuss some of the most significant and interesting papers on population ecology, published in the scientific literature historically and within the last 6 years.  We will begin with a brief section on the scientific method where we'll go beyond the classic Popperian paradigm to explore more complex issues such as pseudoreplication, multicausal systems, quasi-experimentation and the growing use of information theoretic tools.  We will read a series of classic papers on theoretical topics coming back into vogue such as niche, competition, habitat selection, natality, mortality and dispersal before exploring the genetic structure of populations.  Next we will focus on density-dependence, -independence, -vagueness, cycles, eruptions, chaos, population regulation, and viability.  A major section will explore fundamental and optimization approaches to stability of predator prey interactions as well as looking at harvests from a similar perspective.  The final sections will explore efforts at integration and application across large spatial scales for hierarchically structured metapopulations.

 GOALS

The primary goal of this course is to develop an understanding of the major concepts of population dynamics. We will do this by reading and discussing a selection of classical papers in population biology. The discussions are directed toward analyzing and criticizing the concepts proposed and only secondarily toward criticizing the papers themselves. I hope that this will stimulate your interest in the literature in the field of population ecology.

 FORMAT

This course is conducted as a seminar in which the students and instructor lead discussions of important papers selected from the literature in population biology. At appropriate times the instructor will provide brief comments to help students understand the mathematical aspects of significance or the general subject matter being discussed. Each student should prepare for a discussion on a particular paper by reading the paper carefully. If you are in charge of a discussion on a topic you should find a half-dozen other recent papers on the topic which support or refute theory presented in the selected paper. Hand out a brief bibliography at the start of the class and then spend about one third of the period reviewing the selected paper for that day along with the supporting papers. During the remaining time the student in charge should direct discussion of the paper into a critical examination of the paper's implications and significance by raising a series of questions for discussion. Try to avoid excessive criticism of the validity of the paper but use it as a spring-board for better ideas.

A copy of each paper is available from a web site for the class. Each student in the class is responsible for reading the papers before the presentation. 

 GRADING

A short mid-term and final examination will be given in this course. Each will consist of two take-home questions requiring the integration of the concepts covered. Answers will be limited to two pages (500 words) per question. These two exams will make up one-half of the grade, the other half being based on the students' paper presentations.

 Download PAPERS -- Note:  3 sessions added at 2:30-3:20 in CNR 203 on Mondays 9/8, 9/22 & 9/29 to replace canceled sessions on 9/10, 9/12 & 9/15.

A. SCIENTIFIC METHODS

8/27 EOG Romesburg, H. C. 1981. Wildlife science: gaining reliable knowledge. J. Wildl. Manage. 45:293-313.

8/27 EOG Quinn, J. F., and A. E. Dunham. 1983. On hypothesis testing in ecology and evolution. Amer. Natur. 122:602-617.

8/29  AGW     Hurlbert, S. H. 1984. Pseudoreplication and the design of ecological field experiments. Ecol. Monogr. 54:187-211.

8/29   AGW    Cook, T. D. and D. T. Campbell. 1979. Causal inference and the language of experimentation. Pages 1-36 In Cook, T. D., and D. T. Campbell. Quasi-experimentation: Design and analysis issues for field settings. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass. 405 p.

9/3   J Hegg Sinclair, A. R. E. 1991. Science and the practice of wildlife management. J. Wildl. Manage. 55:767-773.

9/3      skip    James, F. C. and C. E. McCulloch. 1985. Data analysis and the design of experiments in ornithology. Pages 1-63 In R. F. Johnston, ed. Current Ornithology, Vol. 2, Plenum Press, New York, N. Y.

9/3 J Hegg  Kuhn, Thomas S.  1970.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (2nd ed.). Chapter 2 - The route to normal science pp. 10-22.  University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

9/5   TJR  Johnson, Douglas H.  1999.  The insignificance of statistical significance testing.  Journal of Wildlife Management 63:763-772.

9/5 _TJR_ Burnham, K. P. and D. R. Anderson.  2002.  Model Selection and Multimodel Inference: A Practical Information-Theoretic Approach.  2nd ed. Chap. 8 Summary, pp. 437-454.  Springer, New York, NY.  

9/5  TJR  Garton, E. O., J. T. Ratti, and J. H. Giudice.  2005. Research and experimental design.  Pages 43-71 In Clait Braun (editor). Techniques for Wildlife Investigations and Management.  The Wildlife Society, Bethesda, MD.

 B. NICHE

9/8    JAB     Hutchinson, G. Evelyn.  Concluding remarks.  Cold Spring Harbor Symposium Quantitative Biology 22:415-427.

9/8     JAB     Whittaker, R. H., S. A. Levin, and R. B. Root. 1973. Niche, habitat and ecotope. Amer. Natur. 107:321-328.

9/17    JJL    Root, R. B. 1967. The niche exploitation of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. Ecol. Monogr. 37:317-319, 331-349.

9/17     JJL    Ayala, F. J. 1968. Genotype, environment and population numbers. Science 162:1453-1459.

 C. COMPETITION - FACILITATION

9/8-2:30    EJH   Gause, G. F. 1934.  The Struggle for Existence.  Williams and Wilkins/Reprinted by Dover, New York, NY.  pp 44-58, 90-113.

9/8-2:30     EJH  Simberloff, D. 1983. Competition theory, hypothesis testing, and other community ecological buzzwords. Amer. Natur. 122:626-635.

9/8-2:30 __CDT_ Roughgarden, J. 1983. Competition and theory in community ecology. Amer. Natur. 122:583-601.

9/19  _BJM__  Tilman, D. 1982. Resource Competition and Community Structure. Monographs in Population Biology No. 17 ( p 43-96 only) Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton , NJ.

9/19     RBH   Heller, H. C. 1971. Altitudinal zonation of chipmunks (Eutamias): Interspecific aggression. Ecology 52:312-319.

9/19   skip     Strong, D. R., Jr. 1983. Natural variability and the manifold mechanisms of ecological communities. Amer. Natur. 122:636-660.

9/19 __RBH_ Ayala, F. J.  1969. Experimental invalidation of the principle of competitive exclusion.  Nature 224:1076-1079.

9/22     DMD    MacArthur, R. H. 1958. Population ecology of some warblers of northeastern coniferous forests. Ecology 39:599-612, 617-619.

9/22 __DMD_ Odum, H. T. and W. C. Allee.  1954.  A note on the stable point of populations showing both intraspecific cooperation and disoperation.  Ecology 35: 95-97..

9/22     _BJM    Noon, B. R. 1981. The distribution of an avian guild along a temperate elevational gradient: The importance and expression of competition. Ecol. Monogr. 51(1):105-124.

9/22    BJM    Connell, J. H. 1983. On the prevalence and relative importance of interspecific competition: evidence from field experiments. Amer. Natur. 122:661-696.

 D. HABITAT SELECTION

9/22-2:30   TRT     Rosenzweig, M. L. 1991. Habitat selection and population interactions: The search for mechanism. Amer. Natur. 137:S5-S28.

9/22-2:30    TRT       Pulliam, H. R. and B. J. Danielson. 1991. Sources, sinks, and habitat selection: A landscape perspective on population dynamics. Amer. Natur. 137:S50-S66.

 E. NATALITY

9/24     JCH     Cody, M. 1966. A general theory of clutch size. Evolution 20:174-184.

9/24      JCH    Murray, B. G., Jr. 1991. Sir Isaac Newton and the evolution of clutch size in birds: A defense of the hypothetico-deductive method in ecology and evolutionary biology. Pages 143-180 In J. L. Casti and A. Karlqvist (eds.) Beyond belief: Randomness, predition and explanation in science. CRC Press, Boca Raton. 334p.

 F. MORTALITY AND DISPERSAL

9/26    BSS       Caughley, G. 1966. Mortality patterns in mammals. Ecology 47:906-918.

9/26     BSS    Botkin, D. B., and R. S. Miller. 1974. Mortality rates and survival of birds. Amer. Natur. 108:181-192.

 G. GENETICS

9/29     EJH    Wright, S. 1940. Breeding structure of populations in relation to speciation. Amer. Natur.74:232-248.

9/29-2:30     TRT    Nelson, M. E. and L. D. Mech. 1987. Demes within a Northeastern Minnesota deer population. pp 27-40 in B. D. Chepko-Sade and Z. T. Halpin, eds. Mammalian Dispersal Patterns: The Effects of Social Structure on Population Genetics. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

9/29-2:30      TRT   Lande, R. 1988. Genetics and demography in biological conservation. Science 241:1455-1460.

 H. DENSITY-DEPENDENCE, -INDEPENDENCE, -VAGUENESS

10/1   TJR Solomon, M. E. 1958. Meaning of density-dependence and related terms in population dynamics. Nature 181:1778-1780.

10/1    TJR Andrewartha, H. G. 1961. Introduction to the study of animal populations. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. pp 5-10 only.

10/3    skip     Strong, D. R. 1984. Density vague ecology and liberal population regulation in insects. pp. 313-327 in Price, P. W., C. N. Slobodchikoff, and W. S. Gaud, (eds.). A new ecology: Novel approaches to interactive systems. 515 pp.

10/3     skip    Ostfeld, R. S. and C. D. Canham. 1995. Density-dependent processes in meadow voles: an experimental approach. Ecology 76: 521-532.

I. CYCLES, FLUCTUATIONS, ERUPTIONS, AND CHAOS

10/3    AGW     Chitty, D. 1967. The natural selection of self-regulatory behavior in animal populations. Proc. Ecol. Soc. of Australia 2:51-78.

10/3    AGW    Christian, J. J., and D. E. Davis. 1964. Endocrines, behavior and population. Science 146:1550-1560.

10/3     JAB     Keith, L. B., J. R. Cary, O. J. Rongstad, and M. C. Brittingham. 1984. Demography and ecology of a declining snowshoe hare population. Wildl. Monogr. No. 90. 43pp.

10/6    BSS     Krebs, C. J., S. Boutin, R. Boonstra, A. R. E. Sinclair, J. N. M. Smith, R. R. Dale, K. Martin, and R. Turkington.  1995.  Impact of food and predation on the snowshoe hare cycle.  Science 269: 112-115.

10/6    BSS     Krebs, C. J. 1970. Genetic and behavioral studies on fluctuating vole populations. Proc. Adv. Study Inst. Dynamics Numbers Popul. (Oosterbeek), pp. 243-256.

10/8    JJL    Caughley, G. 1970. Erruption of ungulate populations, with emphasis on Himalayan thar in New Zealand. Ecology. 51(1):53-72.

10/8     JJL  May, R. M. 1974. Biological populations with non-overlapping generations: stable points, stable cycles, and chaos. Science 186:645-647.

10/10    DMD     Tilman, D. and D. Wedin. 1991. Oscillations and chaos in the dynamics of a perennial grass. Nature 353: 653-655.

10/10     DMD    Hanski, I., P. Turchin, E. Korpimaki, and H. Henttonen. 1993. Population oscillations of boreal rodents: regulation by mustelid predators leads to chaos. Nature 364:232-235.

10/10     DMD     Ritchie, M. E. 1992. Chaotic dynamics in food-limited populations: implications for wildlife management. p 139-146 in D. R. McCullough and R. H. Barrett (eds.) Wildlife 20001: Populations. Elsevier.

 

 J. REGULATION

10/13    RBH    Lack, D. 1954. The natural regulation of animal numbers. Chapter 13. pp. 141-153. Food as a limiting factor in birds. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

10/13     RBH    Wynn-Edwards, V. C. 1962. Animal dispersion in relation to social behaviors. Chapter 1, pp. 1-22. An outline of the principle of animal dispersion.

10/13     BJM    Watson, A. and R. Moss. 1969. Dominance, spacing behavior and aggression in relation to population limitation in vertebrates, pp. 167-218 in Watson, A. (ed.). Animal populations in relation to their food resources. Blackwell Sci. Pub., Oxford.

K. POPULATION VIABILITY

10/15    BSS   Shaffer, M. L. 1981. Minimum population sizes for species conservation. BioScience 31(2):131-134.

10/15    BSS     Shaffer, M. L. 1985. The metapopulation and species conservation: The special case of the northern spotted owl. pp. 86-99 in Gutiérrez, R. J., and A. B. Carey (eds.). Ecology and management of the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest. USDA Forest Service, General Tech. Report PNW-185. Portland, OR. 119pp.

10/15               Harris, R. B., and F. W. Allendorf. 1988. Genetically effective population size of large mammals: an assessment of estimators. Conservation Biology 3:181-191.

10/17    CDT    Senner, J. W. 1980. Inbreeding depression and the survival of zoo populations. pp. 209-224 in Soule, M. E., and B. A. Wilcox (eds.). Conservation biology: An evolutionary-ecological perspective. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA. 395pp.

10/17   CDT    Chepko-Sade, B. D., and W. M. Shields. 1987. The effects of dispersal and social structure on effective population size. pp.287-321 in Chepko-Sade, B. D., and Z. T. Halpin, (eds.). Mammalian dispersal patterns. The effects of social structure on population genetics. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. 324pp.

 L. PREDATION

Functional Response

10/20   BJM     Holling, C. S. 1959. Some characteristics of simple types of predation and parasitism. Canad. Entom. 91:385-398.

10/20    BJM     Holling, C. S. 1959. The components of predation as revealed by a study of small mammal predation of the European Pine Sawfly. Canad. Entom. 90:293-320.

 Search Images

10/22   JJL    Heinrich, B. and S. L. collins.  1983.  Caterpillar damage, and the game of hide-and-seek with birds.  Ecology 64:592-602.

10/22    JJL    Gibb, J. A. 1962. L. Tinbergen's hypothesis of the role of specific search images. Ibis 104:106-111.

Optimal Diet

10/24    JAB     Pyke, G. H., H. R. Pulliam, and E. L. Charnov. 1977. Optimal foraging: a selective review of theory and tests. Quart. Rev. Biol. 52(2):137-154.

10/24     JAB    Sephens, D. W. and J. R. Krebs. 1986. Testing foraging models. Chapter 9 In Foraging Theory. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ.

 M. HARVESTS

10/27    ADW    Anderson, D. R. 1975. Optimal exploitation strategies for an animal population in a Markovian environment: A theory and an example. Ecology 56:1281-1297.

10/29     JCH    Peterman, R. M. 1977. A simple mechanism that causes collapsing stability regions in exploited salmonid populations. J. Fisheries Research Board of Canada 34:1130-1142.

10/29    JCH     Ludwig, D., R. Hilborn, and C. Walters. 1993. Uncertainty, resource exploitation, and conservation: lessons from history. Science 260:17, 36.

 

 

N. METAPOPULATIONS

10/31    EJH      Levins, R. 1970. Extinction. Pages 77-107 in M. Gerstenhaber, ed., Some Mathematical Questions in Biology. American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI.

11/3    TJR    Hanski, I. and M. Gilpin. 1991. Metapopulation dynamics: brief history and conceptual domain. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 42:3-16.

11/3     TJR     Harrison, S. 1991. Local extinction in a metapopulation context: an empirical evaluation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 42:73-88.

11/5    TRT     Hansson, L. 1991. Dispersal and connectivity in metapopulations. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 42:89-103.

11/5    TRT      Fritz, R. S. 1979. Consequences of insular population structure: distribution and extinction of spruce grouse populations. Oecologia 42:57-65.

11/7     DMD    Gilpin, M. 1991. The genetic effective size of a metapopulation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 42:165-175.

11/7      DMD    Pulliam, H. R. 1996. Sources and sinks: empirical evidence and population consequences. pp 45-69 in O. E. Rhodes, Jr., R. K. Chesser, and M.H. Smith, eds. Population Dynamics in Ecological Space and Time. Univ. Chicago Press., Chicago, IL.

11/10    TJR    Wiens, J. A. 1996. Wildlife in patchy environments: metapopulations, mosaics, and management. pp53-84 in D. R. McCullough, ed. Metapopulations and Wildlife Conservation. Island Press, Covelo, CA.

11/12     RBH     Watkinson, A. R., and W. J. Sutherland.  1995.  Sources, sinks and pseudo-sinks.  Journal of Animal Ecology 64:126-130.

11/12     RBH     Boughton, D. A.  1999.  Empirical evidence for complex source-sink dynamics with alternative states in a butterfly metapopulation.  Ecology 80: 2727-2739.

O. EFFORTS AT INTEGRATION

11/14     JCH     Bunnell, F. L. and D. E. N. Tait. 1981. Population dynamics of bears - implications. pp. 75-88 in Fowler, C. W., and T. D. Smith (eds.). Dynamics of large mammal populations. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 477pp.

11/14     JCH    Fowler, C. W. 1981. Comparative population dynamics in large mammals. pp. 437-455 in Fowler, C. W. and T. D. Smith (eds.). Dynamics of large mammal populations. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 477pp.

11/17     EJH     Tanner, J. T. 1975. The stability and the intrinsic growth rates of prey and predator populations. Ecology 56:855-867.

11/17     EJH   Walters, C. J., M. Stocker, and G. C. Haber. 1981. Simulation and optimization models for a wolf-ungulate system. pp. 317-337 in Fowler, C. W. and T. D. Smith (eds.). Dynamics of large mammal populations. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 477pp.

11/19     DMD    Price, P. W. 1984. Alternative paradigns in community ecology. pp.353-383 in Price, P. W., C. N. Slobodchikoff, and W. S. Gaud, (eds.). A new ecology: Novel approaches to interactive systems. 515pp.

11/19     DMD    Moss, R. and A. Watson. 2001. Population cycles in birds of the grouse family (Tetraonidae).  Advances in Ecological Research 32:53-111.

11/21     RBH     Weins, J. A. 1984. Resource systems, populations, and communities. pp.397-436 in Price, P. W., C. N. Slobodchikoff, and W. S. Gaud, (eds.). A new ecology: Novel approaches to interactive systems. 515pp.

P.                MODELING POPULATIONS

  11/21     RBH     Hall, C. A. S. and J. W. Day, Jr. 1977.  Systems and models: Terms and basic principles.  Pp.5-36 in Hall, C. A. S. and J. W. Day, Jr. (eds.). Ecosystem Modeling in Theory and Practice: An Introduction with Case Histories.  John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.684pp.

12/1    TRT      Kingsland, S. E. 1985. Modelling Nature: Episodes in the History of Population Ecology. Chapter 8: The eclipse of history. Pp. 176-205.

12/1     TRT    Starfield, A. M. and A. L. Bleloch. 1986. Building Models for Conservation and Wildlife Management.  MacMillan Publ. Co. New York, NY. Pp. 17-36

12/3     CDT    Walters, C. 1992. Trends in applied ecological modelling. p 117-122 in D. R. McCullough and R. H. Barrett (eds.) Wildlife 20001: Populations.  Elsevier.

12/3     CDT    Caswell, H.  1997.Matrix models for population analysis.  Pp. 19-58 in S. Tuljapurkar and H. Caswell (eds.).  Structured-population Models in Marine, Terrestrial, and Freshwater Systems.  Chapman & Hall, New York, NY.  

12/5    AGW     Turchin, P.  1998.  Modeling movement.  Chapter 3, Pp. 33-73 in P. Turchin, Quantitative Analysis of Movement: Measuring and Modeling Population Redistribution in Animals and Plants.  Sinauer Assoc., Sunderland, MA.

12/8     JJL    Boyce, M. S.  1992. Wolf recovery for Yellowstone National Park: A simulation model. Pp 123-138 in D. R. McCullough and R. H. Barrett (eds.) Wildlife 20001: Populations.  Elsevier.

12/8     JAB    Sibly, R. M., and J. Hone.  2003.  Population growth rate and its determinants: an overview.  Pp. 11-40 In R. M Sibly, J. Hone, and T. H. Clutton-brock (eds.).  Wildlife Population Growth Rates.  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

12/8     JAB   Dennis, B., P. M. Munholland and J. M. Scott.  1991.  Estimation of growth and extinction parameters for endangered species.  Ecology 61:115-143

12/10    BSS      Lele, S., M. L. Taper, and S. Gage. 1992. Statistical Analysis of population dynamics in space and time using estimating functions.  Ecology 79:1489-1502

  12/12     CDT    Pugesek, B. H.  2003.  Concepts of structural equation modeling in biological research.  Pages 40-57 In B. H. Pugesek, A. Tomer, and A. Von Eye (editors).  Structural Equation Modeling, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK.