Life Sciences Commons^™

Non-Linear Relationships Between Density And Demographic Traits In Three Aedes Species, Logan A. Sauers, Steven A. Juliano, Kelsey E. Hawes

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Understanding the relationship of population dynamics to density is central to many ecological investigations. Despite the importance of density-dependence in determining population growth, the empirical relationship between density and per capita growth remains understudied in most systems and is often assumed to be linear. In experimental studies of interspecifc competition, investigators often evaluate the predicted outcomes by assuming such linear relationships, ftting linear functions, and estimating parameters of competition models. In this paper, we experimentally describe the shape of the relationship between estimated population rate of change and initial density using laboratory-reared populations of three mosquito species. We estimated per …