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Science 5 November 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5442, p. 1049
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5442.1049s
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This Week in Science

What factors predispose populations to extinction? Analysis of a series of long-running microcosm experiments with the brine shrimp by Belovsky et al. (p. 1175) have produced some new answers. Although their experiments confirm the more predictable factors that lead to extinction, such as low population size and high environmental variation, they reveal a more complex picture. In particular, the key factor appears to be the variability of the population size over time, which can be driven by environmental variability or nonlinear dynamics. Conservation biology now has a more robust framework within which to plan the protection of threatened species.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)