Dunbar R I M, Korstjens A H, Lehmann J
Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PN.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2009 Aug;84(3):413-29. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2009.00080.x. Epub 2009 May 28.
Conventional approaches to population biology emphasise the roles of climatic conditions, nutrient flow and predation as constraints on population dynamics. We argue here that this focus has obscured the role of time as a crucial constraint on species' abilities to survive in some habitats. Time constraints may be particularly intrusive both for species that live in intensely bonded groups (where the need to devote time to social interaction may ultimately limit the size of group that a species can maintain in a particular habitat) and for taxa that face constraints on the length of the active day. We use a linear programming approach that allows us to specify both how time allocations to different activities are influenced by local environmental and climatic variables and how these in turn limit group size and population density. The linear programming approach identifies the realizable niche space within which a species can maintain coherent groups that are larger than the minimum viable group size (or density). This approach thus allow us to understand better why a given taxon can survive in some habitats but not others, as well as the demographic stress that a population may face. In addition, they also allow us to evaluate the implications of both past and future climate change for a taxon's ability to cope with particular habitats.
传统的种群生物学方法强调气候条件、营养物质流动和捕食作为种群动态限制因素的作用。我们在此认为，这种关注点掩盖了时间作为物种在某些栖息地生存能力的关键限制因素的作用。时间限制对于生活在紧密结合群体中的物种（在这种情况下，将时间用于社交互动的需求最终可能会限制物种在特定栖息地能够维持的群体规模）以及面临活动日长度限制的分类群可能尤为突出。我们使用线性规划方法，这使我们能够确定不同活动的时间分配如何受到当地环境和气候变量的影响，以及这些变量如何反过来限制群体规模和种群密度。线性规划方法确定了一个可实现的生态位空间，在这个空间内，一个物种能够维持比最小可行群体规模（或密度）更大的连贯群体。因此，这种方法使我们能够更好地理解为什么一个给定的分类群能够在某些栖息地生存而在其他栖息地不能生存，以及一个种群可能面临的人口压力。此外，它们还使我们能够评估过去和未来气候变化对一个分类群应对特定栖息地能力的影响。
