The Golden Age of Theoretical Ecology: 1923–1940

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

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2. Historical Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Historical Introduction

      • Francesco M. Scudo, James R. Ziegler

      Pages 1-6

3. Logistic Approaches

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 7-10

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   2. Calculus of variations and the logistic curve

      • V. Volterra

      Pages 11-17

   3. Population growth, equilibria, and extinction under specified breeding conditions: a development and extension of the theory of the logistic curve

      • V. Volterra

      Pages 18-27

   4. The logistic law and its generalizations

      • V. A. Kostitzin

      Pages 28-33

   5. The physiological segregation and the variation of species

      • V. A. Kostitzin

      Pages 34-46

   6. Comments on the note by Mr. Régnier and Miss Lambin: Study of a case of microbial competition (Bacillus coli-Staphylococcus aureus)

      • V. Volterra

      Pages 47-49

   7. The integro-differential equations for the toxic contamination of a medium

      • V. A. Kostitzin

      Pages 50-53

   8. Comments on the toxic action of the medium relative to the note by Mr. Régnier and Miss Lambin

      • V. Volterra, V. A. Kostitzin

      Pages 54-56

4. Competition and Predation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 57-64

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   2. Variations and Fluctuations in the Numbers of Coexisting Animal Species

      • Vito Volterra

      Pages 65-236

   3. Principles of Mathematical Biology: Part II

      • V. Volterra

      Pages 237-263

   4. The general equations of biological strife in the case of historical actions

      • Vito Volterra

      Pages 264-273

   5. The growth of mixed populations: Two species competing for a common food supply

      • Alfred J. Lotka

      Pages 274-286

   6. On Volterra’s theory of the struggle for existence

      • A. N. Kolmogoroff

      Pages 287-292

   7. On asymptotically stable periodic solutions in biological differential equations

      • V. A. Kostitzin

      Pages 293-295

5. Parasitism, Epidemics and Symbiosis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 297-301

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   2. Contribution to the Analysis of Malaria Epidemiology. I. General Part

      • Alfred J. Lotka

      Pages 302-347

This is the part of any book where the authors usually discuss why they wrote it. We hope, however, that the text will justifY itself. In fact, any well-trained ecologist will immediately grasp the significance of these seminal works. We have therefore tried to keep our interpretive comments to a minimum. Students of "modern" theoretical ecology will want to contrast the papers in this collection with their modern derivatives. We believe that those who do so will be surprised, if not amazed, by the ecological sophistication and intellectual power of the earlier works. They will stand as a challenge to those who study them, and we hope, provide a standard for the quality of their work. By presenting this collection of works, most of them not easily available and/or for the first time in English, we hope to help them attain the high level of recognition they deserve. We are also enabling readers not sufficiently familiar with Italian to acquire enough of a background to properly follow the works in French not presented here by including Volterra's "Variazioni e fluttuazioni del numero d' indi vidui in specie animali convi venti" (1927), still available. in the original edition.

• Biomathematik
• biomathematics
• derivative
• ecology
• mathematics
• theoretical ecology

• Laboratorio di Genetica, Biochimica ed Evoluzionistica, Pavia, Italy

  Francesco M. Scudo

• Associate in the Agricultural Experiment Station Division of Biological Control, University of California, Berkeley, Albany, USA

  James R. Ziegler

Policies and ethics