An experimental critique of the population carrying capacity concept.
asymptotic population size
flour beetles
intraspecific competition
logistic growth
population growth
Journal
Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology
ISSN: 2471-5646
Titre abrégé: J Exp Zool A Ecol Integr Physiol
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101710204
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
06 2023
06 2023
Historique:
revised:
01
03
2023
received:
19
09
2022
accepted:
03
03
2023
medline:
8
5
2023
pubmed:
23
3
2023
entrez:
22
3
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Carrying capacity has multiple definitions, but nowadays, it is mainly referred to as the maximum number of individuals of a particular species sustained by the environment. We examined whether multiple populations of two flour beetle species grown under controlled laboratory conditions reach similar asymptotic population sizes when provided with similar amounts of food resources. We demonstrate that the variation in the asymptotic population sizes was considerably larger than that of the initial food resources and that the latter had no significant effect on the former. Our results experimentally contribute to past literature criticizing the carrying capacity concept, demonstrating that there is no single carrying capacity even under strict laboratory conditions. Therefore, we should not expect to often find "carrying capacities" in nature, where resources fluctuate over time, and interspecific interactions are ubiquitous. We suggest that the classic meaning of carrying capacity should be revisited or saved chiefly for didactic purposes.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
487-493Informations de copyright
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Références
Birnbaum, A. (1968). Some latent trait models and their use in inferring an examinee's ability. In F. M. Lord & M. R. Novick (Eds.), Statistical theories of mental test scores (chaps. 17-20) pp. 397-479. Addison-Wesley.
Campbell, J. F., & Hagstrum, D. W. (2002). Patch exploitation by Tribolium castaneum: Movement patterns, distribution, and oviposition. Journal of Stored Products Research, 38, 55-68.
Chapman, E. J., & Byron, C. J. (2018). The flexible application of carrying capacity in ecology. Global Ecology and Conservation, 13, e00365.
Comets, E., Lavenu, A., & Lavielle, M. (2017). Parameter estimation in nonlinear mixed effect models using saemix, an R implementation of the SAEM algorithm. Journal of Statistical Software, 80, 1-41.
Dempster, J. P., & Pollard, E. (1981). Fluctuations in resource availability and insect populations. Oecologia, 50, 412-416.
Dhondt, A. A. (1988). Carrying capacity: A confusing concept. Acta Oecologica, 9, 337-346.
Donahaye, E. J., Navarro, S., Rindner, M., & Azrieli, A. (1996). The combined influence of temperature and modified atmospheres on Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Journal of Stored Products Research, 32, 225-232.
Goyert, H. F., Garton, E. O., Drummond, B. A., & Renner, H. M. (2017). Density dependence and changes in the carrying capacity of Alaskan seabird populations. Biological Conservation, 209, 178-187.
Halliday, W. D., & Blouin-Demers, G. (2014). Red flour beetles balance thermoregulation and food acquisition via density-dependent habitat selection. Journal of Zoology, 294, 198-205.
Hartvigsen, G. (2001). Carrying capacity, concept of. In S. A. Levin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of biodiversity (pp. 641-649). Academic Press.
Hastings, A., Hom, C. L., Ellner, S., Turchin, P., & Godfray, H. C. J. (1993). Chaos in ecology: Is mother nature a strange attractor? Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 24, 1-33.
May, R. M. (1976). Simple mathematical models with very complicated dynamics. Nature, 261, 459-467.
McCool, S. F., & Lime, D. W. (2001). Tourism carrying capacity: Tempting fantasy or useful reality? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 9, 372-388.
McLeod, S. R. (1997). Is the concept of carrying capacity useful in variable environments? Oikos, 79, 529-542.
Odum, E. P. (1953). Fundamentals of ecology. Saunders.
Pearl, R., & Reed, L. J. (1920). On the rate of growth of the population of the United States since 1790 and its mathematical representation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6, 275-288.
Pulliam, H. R., & Haddad, N. M. (1994). Address of the past president. Human population growth and the carrying capacity concept. The Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 75, 141-157.
R Core Team. (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. http://Www.R-Project.Org/
Ribeiro, N., Abelho, M., & Costa, R. (2018). A review of the scientific literature for optimal conditions for mass rearing Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Journal of Entomological Science, 53, 434-454.
Ridley, A. W., Hereward, J. P., Daglish, G. J., Raghu, S., Collins, P. J., & Walter, G. H. (2011). The spatiotemporal dynamics of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst): Adult flight and gene flow: Movement of Tribolium castaneum (HERBST). Molecular Ecology, 20, 1635-1646.
Sayre, N. F. (2008). The genesis, history, and limits of carrying capacity. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 98, 120-134.
Scharf, I., Braf, H., Ifrach, N., Rosenstein, S., & Subach, A. (2015). The effects of temperature and diet during development, adulthood, and mating on reproduction in the red flour beetle. PLoS One, 10, e0136924.
Scharf, I., Wertheimer, K. O., Xin, J. L., Gilad, T., Goldenberg, I., & Subach, A. (2019). Context-dependent effects of cold stress on behavioral, physiological, and life-history traits of the red flour beetle. Insect Science, 26, 142-153.
Seidl, I., & Tisdell, C. A. (1999). Carrying capacity reconsidered: From Malthus' population theory to cultural carrying capacity. Ecological Economics, 31, 395-408.
Sonleitner, F. J., & Gutherie, J. (1991). Factors affecting oviposition rate in the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum and the origin of the population regulation mechanism. Population Ecology, 33, 1-11.
Turchin, P. (1999). Population regulation: A synthetic view. Oikos, 84, 153-159.
Verhulst, P.-F. (1838). Notice sur la loi que la population suit dans son accroissement. Correspondance Mathématique et Physique, 10, 113-121.
Via, S. (1991). Variation between strains of the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum in relative performance on five flours. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, 60, 173-182.
Vidan, E., Quinn, E., Trostanetsky, A., Rapaport, A., Doron, J., Harush, A., Kostyukovsky, M., & Gottlieb, D. (2020). How do similar community dynamics yield different population dynamics and spatial distributions of species? Journal of Stored Products Research, 87, 101621.
Weitzman, J., & Filgueira, R. (2020). The evolution and application of carrying capacity in aquaculture: Towards a research agenda. Reviews in Aquaculture, 12, 1297-1322.
Wexler, Y., Wertheimer, K. O., Subach, A., Pruitt, J. N., & Scharf, I. (2017). Mating alters the link between movement activity and pattern in the red flour beetle. Physiological Entomology, 42, 299-306.