Quantifying variability in population abundances

Schlemmer, M.

doi:10.1101/2022.02.19.481101

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.02.19.481101

Quantifying variability in population abundances

Schlemmer, M.

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Abstract

The variability in population abundances is of central concern for the quantification of evolutionary patterns and an indispensable tool for ecological analysis. Standard measures of population variability are often biased, insensitive to population crashes, and exhibit other pathological behavior. Here I introduce new measures based on the proportional difference between all pairs of abundances and describe a computationally efficient method for their calculation. The new measures are compared to standard measures of population variability. The findings reveal that they have appealing properties and advantages over standard measures. They can provide a common ground for evaluating the variability of populations undergoing very different dynamics.

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Schlemmer, M.. 2022-02-22. Quantifying variability in population abundances. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.19.481101

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