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Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 1998 Oct 22;265(1409):1957–1968. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0526

Phase- and density-dependent population dynamics in Norwegian lemmings: interaction between deterministic and stochastic processes.

N C Stenseth 1, K S Chan 1, E Framstad 1, H Tong 1
PMCID: PMC1689487  PMID: 9821362

Abstract

We analysed two 26-year long (1970-1995) time-series on annual population growth rates of Norwegian lemmings (Lemmus lemmus) from Finse, south Norway, using a threshold autoregressive (TAR) approach. We demonstrate that the population dynamics is both phase- and density-dependent. The phase-dependence accounts for the observed nonlinearity. We used the deduced stochastic model structure as a basis for evaluating the dynamic properties of this system. The dynamics is characterized either by limit cycles or chaos (the latter with a strong semi-periodic component). Stochasticity is seen to play an important role in the determination of the periodicity. The ecological implications of these statistical and mathematical results are discussed.

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Selected References

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