The Golden age of theoretical ecology, 1923-1940 : a collection of works by V. Volterra, V.A. Kostitzin, A.J. Lotka, and A.N. Kolmogoroff

This is the part of any book where the authors usually discuss why they wrote it. We hope, however, that the text will justifY itself. In fact, any well-trained ecologist will immediately grasp the significance of these seminal works. We have therefore tried to keep our interpretive comments to a minimum. Students of "modern" theoretical ecology will want to contrast the papers in this collection with their modern derivatives. We believe that those who do so will be surprised, if not amazed, by the ecological sophistication and intellectual power of the earlier works. They will stand as a challenge to those who study them, and we hope, provide a standard for the quality of their work. By presenting this collection of works, most of them not easily available and/or for the first time in English, we hope to help them attain the high level of recognition they deserve. We are also enabling readers not sufficiently familiar with Italian to acquire enough of a background to properly follow the works in French not presented here by including Volterra's "Variazioni e fluttuazioni del numero d' indi vidui in specie animali convi venti" (1927), still available. in the original edition. Front Matter....Pages I-XI Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Historical Introduction....Pages 1-6 Front Matter....Pages 7-10 Calculus of variations and the logistic curve....Pages 11-17 Population growth, equilibria, and extinction under specified breeding conditions: a development and extension of the theory of the logistic curve....Pages 18-27 The logistic law and its generalizations....Pages 28-33 The physiological segregation and the variation of species....Pages 34-46 Comments on the note by Mr. Régnier and Miss Lambin: Study of a case of microbial competition (Bacillus coli-Staphylococcus aureus)....Pages 47-49 The integro-differential equations for the toxic contamination of a medium....Pages 50-53 Comments on the toxic action of the medium relative to the note by Mr. Régnier and Miss Lambin....Pages 54-56 Front Matter....Pages 57-64 Variations and Fluctuations in the Numbers of Coexisting Animal Species....Pages 65-236 Principles of Mathematical Biology: Part II....Pages 237-263 The general equations of biological strife in the case of historical actions....Pages 264-273 The growth of mixed populations: Two species competing for a common food supply....Pages 274-286 On Volterra’s theory of the struggle for existence....Pages 287-292 On asymptotically stable periodic solutions in biological differential equations....Pages 293-295 Front Matter....Pages 297-301 Contribution to the Analysis of Malaria Epidemiology. I. General Part....Pages 302-347 Contribution to the analysis of malaria epidemiology. IV. Incubation lag....Pages 348-368 Symbiosis, Parasitism and Evolution....Pages 369-408 Front Matter....Pages 409-412 Mathematical Biology: Chapter 15 Evolution ....Pages 413-423 General Differential Equations for the Problem of Natural Selection....Pages 424-426 On the Mendelian Coefficients of Heredity....Pages 427-429 Front Matter....Pages 409-412 The Differential Equations for the Problem of Natural Selection in the Case of Mutations on Sexual Chromosomes....Pages 430-432 On the Singular Points of the Differential Equations in the Problem of Natural Selection....Pages 433-435 Natural Selection and Transformation of the Species from the Mathematical, Statistical and Biological Points of View....Pages 436-438 Front Matter....Pages 439-442 Evolution of the Atmosphere: Organic circulation, glacial periods....Pages 443-484 Back Matter....Pages 485-492