Be. Kendall et al., The macroecology of population dynamics: taxonomic and biogeographic patterns in population cycles, ECOL LETT, 1(3), 1998, pp. 160-164
Regular cycles in population abundance are fascinating phenomena, but are t
hey common in natural populations? How are they distributed among taxa? Are
there differences between different regions of the world, or along latitud
inal gradients? Using the new Global Population Dynamics Database we analys
ed nearly 700 long (25 + years) time series of animal field populations, lo
oking for large-scale patterns in cycles. Nearly 30% of the time series wer
e cyclic. Cycle incidence varied among taxonomic classes, being most common
in mammal and fish populations, but only in fish did cycle incidence vary
among orders. Cycles were equally common in European and North American pop
ulations, but were more common in Atlantic fish than Pacific fish. The inci
dence of cycles increased with latitude in mammals only. There was no latit
udinal gradient in cycle period, but cycle amplitude declined with latitude
in some groups of fish. Even after considering the biases in the data sour
ce and expected type I error, population cycles seem common enough to warra
nt ecological attention.