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Science 22 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5734, pp. 567 - 568
DOI: 10.1126/science.1116268
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Perspectives

ECOLOGY:
Population Dynamics: Growing to Extremes

John D. Reynolds and Robert P. Freckleton

In their Perspective, Reynolds and Freckleton describe an analysis by Sibly et al. of data from 1780 wild populations of animals and discover that most undergo steep reductions in rate of growth much earlier in their trajectories than expected. This implies that density dependence, the holy grail of ecology, acts much sooner to limit populations than previously expected.

J. D. Reynolds is in the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. E-mail: reynolds{at}uea.ac.uk R. P. Freckleton is in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. E-mail: robert.freckleton{at}zoology.oxford.ac.uk

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