A Law of Nature?
Abstract
Is there an overriding principle of nature, hitherto overlooked, that governs all population behavior? A single principle that drives all the regimes observed in nature - exponential-like growth, saturated growth, population decline, population extinction, oscillatory behavior? In current orthodox population theory, this diverse range of population behaviors is described by many different equations - each with its own specific justification. The signature of an overriding principle would be a differential equation which, in a single statement, embraces all the panoply of regimes. A candidate such governing equation is proposed. The principle from which the equation is derived is this: The effect on the environment of a population's success is to alter that environment in a way that opposes the success.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1111.1256,
title = {A Law of Nature?},
author = {Marvin Chester},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1111.1256},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
Revised equation-numbering to correspond to published version