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Regulation and Environmental Variability in Experimental Populations of Protozoa
Author(s) -
Luckinbill Leo S.,
Fenton Mark M.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1938241
Subject(s) - ciliate , paramecium , biology , ecology , population , protozoa , variable (mathematics) , zoology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , genetics , biochemistry , demography , sociology
Regulation of population size is described for 2 protozoan species in environments that become progressively more variable in time. the ciliate, Colpidium campylum, rapidly adjusts population levels to fixed equilibria set by bacteria food supply. As the equilibrium is varied more frequently, tracking populations of this species destabilize and eventually become extinct. A much larger species, Paramecium primaurelia, regulates slowly to fixed equilibrium but assumes more even densities in variable environments. Effects of changing environments are determined here by the frequency and not the magnitude of changing equilibria.