How do Ecologists use factoring polynomials to determine when species might become extinct.?

Question by : How do Ecologists use factoring polynomials to determine when species might become extinct.?
Ecologists may use factoring polynomials to determine when species might become extinct.

can you give me an example and explain how pleassee!

Best answer:

Answer by strawman of god
Mainly we use probabilities to predict extinctions and that is what the curves are based on, so they don’t follow a standard polynomial formula. Instead you use estimates of minimum viable population size (MVP), and using the data available on the species predict the likelihood that the species will persist at that size. This is repeated to give a frequency for the MVP and then you do it for a whole range of MVPs and plot the result. This is part of Population Viability Analysis (PVA), which uses many different models but most of them are not polynomial.

A way to predict extinctions across a range of species rather than individual species is to use the Species Area Relationship (SAR) which is polynomial. Basically when you survey a location, the number of individuals you encounter will depend on how large the site you sample is. Larger sites have more species, but this plateaus and becomes asymptotic at large areas. The SAR has been used to predict large numbers of extinctions due to climate change but this has been heavily criticised for ignoring stochaistic influences eg genetics, species interactions etc. Basically the models were too simple and looked only at climate tolerance which ignores the potential for natural selection to favour different traits in a species after disturbance depletes the populations in an ecosystem (the foundation of the theory of punctuated equilibrium). So the SAR isn’t a great way to predict extinction, which is why PVA is used in conservation.

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