The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

The consequences of the variance-mean rescaling effect on effective population size

På svenska

Author

  • C Pertoldi
  • Lars Bach
  • J S F Barker
  • Per Lundberg
  • V Loeschcke

Summary, in English

The effective population size (N-e), and the ratio between N-e and census population size (N) are often used as measures of population viability. We show that using the harmonic mean of population sizes over time - a common proxy for N-e- has some important evolutionary consequences and implications for conservation management. This stems from the fact that there is no unambiguous relationship between the arithmetic and harmonic means for populations fluctuating in size. As long as the variance of population size increases moderately with increasing arithmetic mean population size, the harmonic mean also increases. However, if the variance of population size increases more rapidly, which existing data often suggest, then the harmonic mean may actually decrease with increasing arithmetic mean. Thus maximizing N may not maximize N-e,N- but could instead lower the adaptive potential and hence limit the evolutionary response to environmental change. Large census size has the clear advantage of lowering demographic stochasticity, and hence extinction risk, and under certain conditions large census size also minimizes the loss of genetic variation. Consequently, maximising census size has served as a useful dogma in ecology, genetics and conservation. Nonetheless, due to the intricate relationships among N-e, population viability and the properties of population fluctuations, we suggest that this dogma should be taken only as a rule of thumb.

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

769-774

Publication/Series

Oikos

Volume

116

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

Research group

  • Theoretical Population Ecology and Evolution Group

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1600-0706