This chapter reviews the basic mathematics of population growth as described by the exponential growth model and the logistic growth model. These simple models of population growth provide a foundation for the development of more complex models of species interactions covered in later chapters on predation, competition, and mutualism. The second half of the chapter examines the important topic of density-dependence and its role in population regulation. The preponderance of evidence for negative density-dependence in nature is reviewed, along with examples of positive density dependence (Allee effects). The study of density dependence in single-species populations leads naturally to the concept of community-level regulation, the idea that species richness or the total abundance of individuals in a community may be regulated just like abundance in a single-species population. The chapter concludes with a look at the evidence for community regulation in nature and a discussion of its importance.
Periodicity and stability in a single-species model governed by impulsive differential equation
