Population biology

Population biology is the study of populations of organisms, especially the regulation of population size, life history traits such as clutch size, and extinction. The term population biology is often used interchangeably with population ecology, although 'population biology' is more frequently used when studying diseases, viruses, and microbes, and 'population ecology' is used more frequently when studying plants and animals.

Although Malthus's book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, dealt only with the economy of human population fluctuations, which he theorized as being related to finite food resources, abundance and decadence, it gave inspiration to Charles Darwin for the theoretical basis of his seminal work, The Origin of Species.

Charles Darwin in his autobiography (written 1876, edited by his son and published 1887), pp. 34–35.

The Population Extra

See also