Demography in stochastic environments. II: Growth and convergence rates (Q1820088)

The paper is concerned with dynamics of population models described by Leslie matrices with randomly time-varying vital rates. Included is a summary of previous results by the author and by others as well as new, original, elements. It is shown that the rate of convergence of the age distribution to the limit is governed by the second largest Lyapunov characteristic exponent. The average growth rate (i.e. the largest exponent) and all the remaining exponents are explicitly computable for a special case with only one age class fertile. For another special case with only two age classes present, considered in detail by functional equations techniques in Part I of the paper, ibid. 19, 335-350 (1984; Zbl 0552.92014), both characteristic exponents can be computed too. Other classes of stochastic Leslie matrices are introduced for which the leading exponent is computable and which help display the effect of correlation between vital rates on growth.