Murray Bertram G
Department of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, 08903, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.
Oecologia. 1982 Jun;53(3):370-373. doi: 10.1007/BF00389016.
Despite a long history, the term "density dependence" lacks a generally accepted definition. A definition is offered that seems consistent with most other definitions and general usage, that is, a density-dependent factor is any component of the environment whose intensity is correlated with population density and whose action affects survival and reproduction. This definition is used in evaluating the role of territorial behavior, the availability of nest sites, and competition in determining the size of a population. Because neither territory size nor the number of nest sites is correlated with either density or with changes in the birth and death rates of these populations, these cannot be considered density-dependent factors. Competition determines who does breed and who does not rather than the number of breeders, and thus it is not a density-dependent factor determining a population's size.
尽管“密度依赖”一词历史悠久，但缺乏一个被普遍接受的定义。这里给出一个似乎与大多数其他定义和一般用法相一致的定义，即密度依赖因子是环境中的任何一个组成部分，其强度与种群密度相关，且其作用会影响生存和繁殖。该定义用于评估领域行为、巢穴地点的可利用性以及竞争在决定种群规模方面所起的作用。由于领域大小和巢穴地点数量均与这些种群的密度或出生率和死亡率的变化无关，因此这些不能被视为密度依赖因子。竞争决定的是谁会繁殖而谁不会繁殖，而非繁殖者的数量，因此它不是决定种群规模的密度依赖因子。
