On the Meaning and Existence of an Effective Population Size
Open Access
- 1 February 2005
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Genetics
- Vol. 169 (2) , 1061-1070
- https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.104.026799
Abstract
We investigate conditions under which a model with stochastic demography or population structure converges to the coalescent with a linear change in timescale. We argue that this is a necessary condition for the existence of a meaningful effective population size. We find that such a linear timescale change is obtained when demographic fluctuations and coalescence events occur on different timescales. Simple models of population structure and randomly fluctuating population size are used to exemplify the ideas and provide an intuitive feel for the meaning of the conditions.Keywords
This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Convergence to the coalescent in populations of substantially varying sizeJournal of Applied Probability, 2004
- Coalescent process with fluctuating population size and its effective sizeTheoretical Population Biology, 2004
- Faculty Opinions recommendation of Gene genealogies in a metapopulation.Published by H1 Connect ,2002
- The Effective Size of Fluctuating PopulationsTheoretical Population Biology, 2001
- Robustness results for the coalescentJournal of Applied Probability, 1998
- Sampling theory for neutral alleles in a varying environmentPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 1994
- Effective Population Size in Organisms with Complex Life-HistoriesTheoretical Population Biology, 1993
- The coalescent and the genealogical process in geographically structured populationJournal of Mathematical Biology, 1990
- The coalescentStochastic Processes and their Applications, 1982
- On the concept of the effective population sizeTheoretical Population Biology, 1982