Figure 1. Demonstration of an Anthropogenic Allee Effect with a Simple Model of an Exploited Population.

The price (red, thick line) and cost (blue, thin line) per unit harvest in unit time as a function of the population density x when (A) the price is independent of x and (B) the price increases with rarity. The system is in equilibrium whenever the red and blue lines meet, and the bold arrows represent how the population responds when perturbed from equilibrium. In (B), an increased price at low population density induces an Allee Effect.