During the 20th century, biologists have investigated mechanisms that stabilize the biological population, groups that must grow geometrically - if not verified by agencies such as competition and predation. How is order maintained in nature in the face of seemingly unorganized conflict for existence? In this book, Lawrence Muller and Amitabha Joshi study the current theories of population stability and show how modern laboratory research on model groups - especially flies, tribolium, and dossophila - contributes to our understanding of population dynamics and the development of stability. The authors review the general theory of population stability and the critical analysis of techniques in order to determine whether a particular society is balanced or not.

They then show how rigorous empirical research can reveal the proximate causes of stability (how societies are organized and maintained at equilibrium, including the relative roles of biotic and non-biological factors) and their ultimate causes, most of which are evolutionary. In this process, experimental studies are described on model systems that address the effects of age structure, internal reproduction, resource levels, and population structure on population stability and continuity.

The discussion includes the authors' own findings on the evolution of population stability in the fruit fly. Go to link laboratory work to animal studies in the wild and develop a general framework for linking the history of species' life and ecology to their population dynamics.

This carefully accessible illustration, and how carefully designed experiments can improve theory, will be of immense value to all ecologists and evolutionary biologists.