Krebs, C. J.2013. Population Fluctuations in Rodents. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, ix + 306 pp. ISBN 978-0-226-01035-9, price (hardbound), $55.00

Abstract

C. J. Krebs, 2013. Population Fluctuations in Rodents. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, ix + 306 pp. ISBN 978-0-226-01035-9, price (hardbound), $55.00. Charles Krebs has been a leader in the study of the population dynamics of small mammals for decades, and this book presents both his analyses of specific hypotheses and syntheses of general patterns. The book summarizes a vast literature and will serve as an admirable introduction to population dynamics for its target audience, advanced undergraduates and graduate students and ecologists outside the field. Krebs makes clear that he is concerned with population fluctuations in general, not just population cycles, but most of the book is devoted to results for arvicoline rodents (lemmings and voles), a group that provides several classic examples of population cycling. Krebs has strong ideas regarding the proper approach to population ecology. As he sees it, there are 2 problems regarding changes in population densities, 1 spatial and 1 temporal. The spatial problem involves shifts in average density of rodents across different habitats, differences that he believes usually reflect different availability of resources, particularly food and cover (protection from predation). The temporal problem, which consumes most of the book, concerns changes in density through time within a habitat, which is the traditional realm of population dynamics. He argues that one should attack the latter problem by finding environmental factors that strongly influence rates of population change and not density per se, a stance that may underemphasize the interaction of environmental factors with density. Krebs provides background in the first 2 chapters by considering different ways to classify population change, including time-series analysis, and geographical shifts in patterns of population dynamics, particularly those that change with latitude. …