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Stability and complexity in model ecosystems.

Robert M. May
- Vol. 6, pp 1-235
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The article was published on 1973-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 5524 citations till now.

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Does population ecology have general laws

TL;DR: There is a widespread opinion among ecologists that ecology lacks general laws, but the author argues that this opinion is mistaken and points out that there are several very general law-like propositions that provide the theoretical basis for most population dynamics models that were developed to address specific issues.
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Competitive exclusion and limiting similarity: a unified theory.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that Roughgarden's example for coexistence of a continuum of populations is structurally unstable and the parameter range allowing coexistence shrinks and disappears when the Jacobian of the dynamics decreases to zero.
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Forest size and avian diversity in New Jersey woodlots with some land use implications.

TL;DR: The effect of forest size on avian diversity was studied in oak forest patches in rural New Jersey and number of bird species continued to increase significantly in old oak woods up through 40 ha.
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Principles of ecosystem sustainability

TL;DR: A new framework for defining the conditions that sustain natural ecosystems is presented and principles to apply to sustainability of managed ecosystems are applied.
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Allee effects, extinctions, and chaotic transients in simple population models.

TL;DR: Discrete time single species models with overcompensating density dependence and an Allee effect due to predator satiation and mating limitation show populations can persist at high levels of predation even though lower levels ofpredation lead to essential extinction.