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Is there a sigmoid growth of Gause's Paramecium caudatum in constant environment
The National Laboratory of Integrated Management of Insect and Rodent Pests in Agriculture, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100080
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.