POPULATION-DYNAMICS AS RELATED TO RATE OF INCREASE PER GENERATION

Inflection points in animal population growth curves (expressed as a fraction of equilibrium population levels) are correlated with rates of increase per generation. The inflection point declines with increasing rates of increase per generation. This apparent unifying principle of population dynamics is independent of phenomena related to body size since the rate of increase per generation is not correlated with body size. Species as diverse as whales and bacteria appear to conform to the pattern. More studies of the observed relationships are to be encouraged.