Contents

Populations illustrate characteristics such as growth and decline, birth and death, immigration and emigration, life histories adapted to the environment, and dynamical behavior. These are the topics in this part of the book. They are of great interest to the insect ecologist because they provide ways of understanding species in nature and in managed systems. We need these approaches in order to predict population trends and to plan pest-management strategies. Emphasis on population phenomena also provides an intermediary level of understanding between species interactions (Part III), community organization (Part V) and broader patterns over the landscape (Part VI). Naturally, species interactions have population consequences, such as natural enemies impacting prey populations, so comparable to what we did with species interactions, moving up the trophic levels, we now approach by moving up a complexity gradient from individuals (Part II), to interactions (Part III) and now to their consequences at the population level.