When discussing

population dynamics Population dynamics is the type of mathematics used to model and study the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems. History Population dynamics has traditionally been the dominant branch of mathematical biology, which has ...

behavioral ecology Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures. Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined four questions to address when ...

, and

cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

, recruitment is several different

biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...

processes. In population dynamics, recruitment is the process by which new individuals are added to a population, whether by birth and maturation or by immigration. When discussing behavioral ecology and

animal communication Animal communication is the transfer of information from one or a group of animals (sender or senders) to one or more other animals (receiver or receivers) that affects the current or future behavior of the receivers. Information may be sent int ...

, recruitment is communication that is intended to add members of a group to specific tasks. Finally, when discussing cell biology, recruitment is the process by which cells are selected for certain tasks.

Recruitment in population dynamics

Definition and importance

In population dynamics and community ecology, recruitment is the process by which individuals are added to a population. Successful recruitment is contingent on an individual surviving and integrating within the population; in some studies, individuals are only considered to have been recruited into a population once they've reached a certain size or life stage. Recruitment can be hard to assess due to the multitude of factors that affect it, such as predation, birth, and dispersal rates and environmental factors like temperature, precipitation, and natural disturbances. Recruitment rates in turn affect population size and demographics. High recruitment may increase a species' current and future abundance within a system, whereas low recruitment can lead to reduced current and future abundance.

Common study systems

Aquatic systems

Recruitment can be an important factor in predicting future population growth potential. For this reason, and due to their economic importance, recruitment has commonly been studied in fishery systems. While experimental work has been done in aquatic systems, dozens of papers have been published in the last few decades to model recruitment in both marine and freshwater aquatic environments.

Forest systems

Experimental studies on the effects of recruitment are numerous in forest and annual plant systems.

Recruitment in behavioral ecology

In behavioral ecology and studies of animal communication, recruitment is the process by which individuals in a social group direct other individuals to do certain tasks. This is often achieved through the use of recruitment

pheromones A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

that direct anywhere from one to several hundred individuals to important resources, like food or nesting sites. Recruitment is practiced in a wide variety of

eusocial Eusociality (from Greek εὖ ''eu'' "good" and social), the highest level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generat ...

taxa, most notably in hymenoptera (the ants, bees, and wasps) and termites but also in social caterpillars, beetles, and even a species of naked mole rats (''

Heterocephalus glaber The naked mole-rat (''Heterocephalus glaber''), also known as the sand puppy, is a burrowing rodent native to the Horn of Africa and parts of Kenya, notably in Somali regions. It is closely related to the blesmols and is the only species in th ...

).''

References

{{modelling ecosystems, expanded=other Ecosystems