This paper presents the results of a multi-scalar analysis of 1800 years of Cucuteni-Tripolye population dynamics, with particular emphasis on the rapid Western Tripolye migrations beginning c. 4150 B.C.E. that led to the development of the giant-settlement phenomenon in Central Ukraine. In addition to macro-scale population modeling, statistical analysis is performed to demonstrate a significa...

A growing number of studies quantify the impact of nonlethal human disturbance on the behavior and reproductive success of animals. Athough many are well designed and analytically sophisticated, most lack a theoretical framework for making predictions and for understanding why particular responses occur. Behavioral ecologists have recently begun to fill this theoretical vacuum by applying econo...

Understanding the causes of fluctuations in population abundance is critical for ecologists and fishery biologists. For marine fishes with life histories in which adults have limited home ranges and larvae are pelagic and advected vast distances from natal sites, an understanding of variability in larval supply to local populations is critical for understanding the mechanisms that produce dynam...

With characteristics differing from majority households, Latino growth is occurring at a time California is conflicted between several urban development models; a choice between developing compact cities, preserving the environment or increasing urban sprawl and slums. A central argument of this thesis is that, given their household characteristics, the growing Latino population (the future maj...

List of papers This thesis is based on the following papers, which will be referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. Effects of intensified management of hay-meadows on population dynamics of Succisa pratensis. Manuscript. Intensified management affects population growth differently in the two perennial herbs Hypochoeris maculata and Polygala amarella. Manuscript. Artificial dispersal as...

This study examines the influence of optimal patch choice by consumers on resource population dynamics and on consumer distribution in a two patch environment. The evolutionarily stable strategy which describes animal distributions across habitat patches is called the ideal free distribution (IFD) strategy. Two mechanisms that lead to the IFD are: (1) direct consumer competition such as interfe...

In this paper we present an endogenous growth model with productive public capital and pollution. As to pollution we assume that it is a by-product of aggregate production and that it negatively affects utility of the household but not production possibilities directly. The paper studies the dynamics of the model and demonstrates that there exists either a unique balanced growth path which is a...

Skewness is an important property of a population. Although many measures have been proposed there is no consensus on what should be used in practice. We propose a new measure which is appropriate when the direction of the skewness is known a priori. It is simple to interpret and easy to estimate.

Fear of predation produces large effects on prey population dynamics through indirect risk effects that can cause even greater impacts than direct predation mortality. As yet, there is no general theoretical framework for predicting when and how these population risk effects will arise in specific prey populations, meaning that there is often little consideration given to the key role predator ...