A law of nature?

Abstract

Is there an overriding principle of nature, hitherto overlooked, that governs all population behavior? A single principle that drives all the regimes observed in nature - exponential-like growth, saturated growth, population decline, population extinction, oscillatory behavior? In current orthodox population theory, this diverse range of population behaviors is described by many different equations - each with its own specific justification. The signature of an overriding principle would be a differential equation which, in a single statement, embraces all the panoply of regimes. A candidate such governing equation is proposed. The principle from which the equation is derived is this: The effect on the environment of a population's success is to alter that environment in a way that opposes the success.