Toward an Ecological Demography

Abstract

An innovative way of looking at demographic patterns is based on paradigms from the fields of behavioral and evolutionary ecology. Just as the analytic techniques of demography have been important to biological investigations the theoretical advances of the last 25 years in biology may offer important perspectives on central problems in demography and provide paths to fruitful ecologically informed solutions. The authors summarize the pertinent theory in behavioral ecology highlight two important differences in the way biologists and demographers partition problems and illustrate how behavioral ecology might contribute to a new understanding of several important issues in classical demography namely natural versus controlled fertility population regulation and allocation of resources to offspring. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)