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Estimating the ratio of effective to actual size of an age‐structured population from individual demographic data |
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| Authors: | S. Engen R. Lande B.‐E. Sæther P. Gienapp |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Mathematical Sciences, Centre for Conservation Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway;2. Division of Biology, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire, UK;3. Department of Biology, Centre for Conservation Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway;4. Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, University of Helsinki, Finland |
| Abstract: | The effective population size is a central concept for understanding evolutionary processes in a finite population. We employ Fisher's reproductive value to estimate the ratio of effective to actual population size for an age‐structured population with two sexes using random samples of individual vital rates. The population may be subject to environmental stochasticity affecting the vital rates. When the mean sex ratio at birth is known, improved efficiency is obtained by utilizing the records of total number of offspring rather than considering separately female and male offspring. We also show how to incorporate uncertain paternity. |
| Keywords: | age structure demographic variance effective population size environmental variance genetic drift reproductive value stochastic population dynamics |