The Population Consequences of Life History Phenomena

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Abstract
Living species exhibit great diversity of patterns of such life history features as total fecundity, maximum longevity, and statistical age schedules of reproduction and death. For each of these there is a definitely determined set of population consequences which would result from adherence to the specific life history. These population phenomena may be related in numerous ways to the ability of a species to survive in a changed physical environment or in competition with other species. It is possible to compute the exact size and composition of the population which at any future time would be produced by any initial population when the life-history pattern of the individual organism is regarded as fixed. It is possible to make an exact evaluation of the results of changing any life-history feature. Starting with exact computational methods, it has been shown that early population growth may exhibit irregularities of cyclic components which are identifiable with negative or complex roots of an algebraic equation, but that these components vanish in time, so that potential population growth is ultimately a geometric progression. With this fact established it is shown that the exact computational methods lead to identical conclusions when considered over the long time scale which is of interest in adaptational and evolutionary considerations. Some life-history patterns of ecological interest are examined and compared by means of formulas derived from a consideration of the form of potential population growth.
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