@article{lambert_population_2010,
Author = {Lambert, Amaury},
Title = {Population genetics, ecology and the size of
populations},
Journal = {Journal of Mathematical Biology},
Volume = {60},
Number = {3},
Pages = {469--472},
abstract = {If you work in mathematical population biology, then
for you populations either have constant sizes and are
made of DNA sequences -- which makes you a population
geneticist -- or they have fluctuating sizes and are
made out of individual organisms -- which makes you a
population ecologist. Here, I want to discuss how
population geneticists might take advantage of modeling
habits of population ecologists. In my view, numerous
quantities and properties of population genetic models
are given as constant through time, top-down
constraints, whereas in population ecology, they emerge
as bottom-up properties of stochastic, individual-based
models. The starting observation of this analysis is
that some population properties may depend dramatically
upon whether the population size is assumed constant or
constant on average. The former case can be illustrated
by the gold standard in population genetics, i.e., the
Wright-Fisher model (Ewens 2005), and the latter by the
critical branching process (Haccou et al. 2005). For
example in Lambert (2009), we have displayed such a
discrepancy for the frequency spectrum (abundances of
distinct types) in populations undergoing mutation.
Hereafter, we tackle four different aspects of
population biology modeling (population size,
selection, spatial structure and stationarity), and
review some outstanding challenges that might help
building a parallel approach to population genetics. },
doi = {10.1007/s00285-009-0286-3},
issn = {1432-1416},
language = {eng},
month = mar,
pmid = {19657640},
year = 2010
}