TABLE 1.

Notation used

t	Time units (generally in years)
N1	No. of age-1 individuals (newborns) produced in one time interval
Nx	No. of individuals of age x in the population
∑Nx	Total no. of individuals in the population
j	Age at first maturity
q	Age at senescence
N	Population size, expressed as the total census size (), no. of reproductive adults (Nadult = ), or no. of newborns (N1)
T	Generation length (mean age of parents)
bx	Mean no. of offspring produced in one time interval by individuals of age x
lx	Fraction of a cohort that survives to age x
sx	Fraction of individuals of age x that survive to age x + 1
dx	Fraction of individuals of age x that die before reaching age x + 1; dx = 1− sx
vx	Reproductive value for individuals of age x
αx	Fraction of a cohort that reaches age x and then dies; αx = lxdx
λ	Population growth rate per time period
k	No. of gametes contributed to the next generation by an individual over its lifetime
	Mean lifetime k for individuals that die between ages x and x + 1
σx2	Variance in lifetime k of individuals that die between ages x and x + 1
	Mean lifetime k for all individuals breeding within a generation
Vk	Variance in lifetime k among all individuals within a generation
Ne	Effective population size for a generation
	An estimate of effective size based on genetic data for two samples taken 1 or more time units apart
	Instantaneous effective size that describes the actual rate of change in the population at a point t in time
S	No. of individuals per time interval sampled for genetic analysis
L	Time interval between samples
g	Elapsed no. of generations between samples; g = L/T
F	Standardized variance of allele frequencies
Px(t)	Allele frequency in age class x at time unit t
	Population allele frequency at time t, weighting each individual equally
	Population allele frequency at time t, weighting each individual by its reproductive value
C	A constant that depends on life-history parameters of the population, used to estimate Ne in the temporal method of Jorde and Ryman (1995)