Distribution of animal population fluctuations

Boon Leong Lan and Paurnami Chandran

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2011, vol. 390, issue 7, 1289-1294

Abstract: We show that the fluctuations of a variety of animal (insect, mammal and fish) populations are well-modeled by stable (Lévy) distributions, a family of distributions which includes the Gaussian. Our findings together with the finding [A.P. Allen, B.-L. Li, E.L. Charnov, Ecol. Lett. 4 (2001) 1–3] that bird population fluctuations are well-modeled by Gaussian distributions suggest the hypothesis that, in general, animal population fluctuations are well-modeled by stable distributions. If the hypothesis is confirmed, the stable law for the distribution of animal population fluctuations would be useful for animal population modeling, prediction and management.

Keywords: Population fluctuations; Ecology; Stable distributions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:390:y:2011:i:7:p:1289-1294

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2010.11.015

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