Abstract
This paper introduces two new demographic parameters, the entropy and the reproductive potential of a population. The entropy of a population measures the variability of the contribution of the different age classes to the stationary age distribution. The reproductive potential measures the mean of the contribution of the different age classes to the growth rate. Using a relation between these measures and the Malthusian parameter, it is shown that in a random mating population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and under slow selection, the rate of change of entropy is equal to the genetic variance in entropy minus the genetic covariance of entropy and reproductive potential. This result is an analogue of Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection.
Keywords: Malthusian parameter, entropy, reproductive potential, fundamental theorem
Full text
PDFSelected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Charlesworth B. Selection in populations with overlapping generations. I. The use of Malthusian parameters in population genetics. Theor Popul Biol. 1970 Nov;1(3):352–370. doi: 10.1016/0040-5809(70)90051-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]