Dennis Chitty
Appearance
(Redirected from Dennis H. Chitty)
Dennis Hubert Chitty | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | February 3, 2010 | (aged 97)
Alma mater | |
Known for | Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | |
Thesis | Factors controlling the density of wild populations, with special reference to fluctuations in the vole (Microtus) and the snowshoe rabbit (Lepus americanus) (1949) |
Doctoral advisor | Charles Sutherland Elton |
Doctoral students | Charles Krebs |
Dennis Hubert Chitty FRSC (18 September 1912 – 3 February 2010), was a professor of zoology at the University of British Columbia. In 1969, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[1]
The Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation states that population density is limited by spacing behaviour, which has genetic underpinnings and rapidly responds to natural selection.[2] Because of the controversial nature of this idea at the time, David Lack attempted to veto Chitty's dissertation, though it was eventually accepted because of the intervention of Peter Medawar.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ Obituary
- ^ Krebs, Charles J. (1978). "A review of the Chitty Hypothesis of population regulation". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 56 (12): 2463–2480. doi:10.1139/z78-335.
- ^ Was the Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation a ‘Big Idea’ in Ecology and was it successful?