Is there a sigmoid growth of Gause's Paramecium caudatum in constant environment

Pages: 687 - 694, Volume 4, Issue 3, August 2004

doi:10.3934/dcdsb.2004.4.687       Abstract        Full Text (129.3K)

Dianmo Li - The National Laboratory of Integrated Management of Insect and Rodent Pests in Agriculture, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100080, China (email)
Zufei Ma - The National Laboratory of Integrated Management of Insect and Rodent Pests in Agriculture, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100080, China (email)
Baoyu Xie - The National Laboratory of Integrated Management of Insect and Rodent Pests in Agriculture, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100080, China (email)

Abstract: Gause's experiments of Paramecium caudatum have been thought as one of the most accurate experiments in ecology. Although it has been hypothesized by ecologists that the population dynamics can be approximated by the classical sigmoid curve, there are still some questions as to whether the analytical method is accurate enough in relation to experimental data. Therefore analytical results are frequently encountered with doubt. In this study, we estimated some growing parameters based strictly on the life history of Paramecium caudatum and with a more flexible logistic model. Since the intrinsic growth rate values fell in different regions, the population dynamics were considered to follow a complex pattern.

Keywords:  Population dynamics, Sigmoid growth curve, Differential equation, Difference equation.
Mathematics Subject Classification:  92D25, 92D40.

Received: November 2002;      Revised: December 2003;      Published: May 2004.