[Calculating the intrinsic growth rate: comparison of definition and model]

It was shown that well known equation r = ln[N(t2)/N(t1)]/(t2 - t1) is the definition of the average value of intrinsic growth rate of population r within any given interval of time t2-t1 and changing arbitrarity its numbers N(t). The common opinion considering the equation as suitable only for exponentially growing population was found to be incorrect. The fundamentally different approach is based on the calculation of r within the framework of demographic model, realized as Euler - Lotka equation or population projection matrices. However this model requires simultaneous realization of several assumptions improbable for natural populations: exponential change in population size, stable age structure and maintaining constant age-dependent birth and death rates. The calculation of r by definition requires the data on the dynamics of population numbers, whereas calculation on the basis of the model requires the demographic tables of birth and death rate, but not the population numbers. With the example of American ginseng it was shown that evalution of r by definition and model approaches could produce opposite results.