The environments of animals and plants

✍ Scribed by T.O. Browning

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1962
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 318 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5193
• DOI: 10.1016/s0022-5193(62)80027-7

✦ Synopsis

A new analysis of the idea of "environment" is suggested, based on the theory of Andrewartha and Birch. It is shown that environment can be analysed into five components: the weather, resources, members of the same species, members of other species, and hazards. When considered in this way the idea of environment may be used to help explain the numbers in any population.

Andrewartha & Birch (1954) put forward a theory by which the numbers of animals in a population could be explained. Their theory states that changes in the numbers of animals depend on changes in the length of life, fecundity or speed of development of the animals, and that these attributes of the animals are influenced by the "environment". These were well established and widely accepted views. But they concluded that the idea of environment could pertain only to individual animals, because longevity, fecundity, and speed of development are attributes of individuals and not of populations. As explicitly stated, this was a new departure in the theory of animal ecology. They also limited the concept of environment