Ecological Orbits

This book proposes a new approach to population biology and ecology. The current paradigm for analyzing population dynamics focuses attention on the growth rate as the main variable responding to the environment, and leads often to predictions of runaway acceleration seldom actually seen in nature. This book proposes and develops an inertial view of population growth, taking note of acceleration, or rate of change of the growth rate between consecutive generations, which allows a simpler model for complex population dynamics, often without invoking species interations, that appears to fit the actual outcomes better than traditional Lotka-Volterra modeling. The maternal effect is presented as a major driver for this shift in modeling orientation. Investment of mothers in the quality of their daughters makes the rate of reproduction depend not only on the current environment, but also on the environment experienced by the previous generation. Ginzburg is a highly respected ecologist, and this book should be read by most population biologists and ecological modellers and by theoretical biologists and philosophers of science.