The Environment Institute and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia.
Oecologia. 2012 Nov;170(3):585-603. doi: 10.1007/s00442-012-2347-3. Epub 2012 May 31.
The concept of density dependence represents the effect of changing population size on demographic rates and captures the demographic role of social and trophic mechanisms (e.g. competition, cooperation, parasitism or predation). Ecologists have coined more than 60 terms to denote different statistical and semantic properties of this concept, resulting in a formidable lexicon of synonymies and polysemies. We have examined the vocabulary of density dependence used in the modern ecological literature from the foundational lexicon developed by Smith, Allee, Haldane, Neave and Varley. A few simple rules suffice to abate terminological inconsistency and to enhance the biological meaning of this important concept. Correct citation of original references by ecologists and research journals could ameliorate terminological standards in our discipline and avoid linguistic confusion of mathematically and theoretically complex patterns.
密度制约的概念代表了种群大小变化对人口统计率的影响，并捕捉了社会和营养机制（如竞争、合作、寄生或捕食）的人口统计作用。生态学家创造了 60 多个术语来表示这个概念的不同统计和语义属性，从而形成了一个同义词和多义词的可怕词汇。我们从史密斯、阿勒、霍尔德恩、尼夫和瓦利发展的基础词汇中检查了现代生态学文献中使用的密度制约词汇。只需几条简单的规则就足以消除术语不一致，并增强这个重要概念的生物学意义。生态学家和研究期刊正确引用原始参考文献，可以改善我们学科的术语标准，避免数学和理论上复杂模式的语言混淆。
