# Allee threshold

> > These dynamics were first described in the 1930s by Warder Clyde Allee, a professor at the University of Chicago and a pioneer of American ecology. His paper Studies in animal aggregations: Mass protection against colloidal silver among goldfishes observed that goldfish grow more rapidly and can resist water toxicity when they are in groups. … This became an important concept in biology because it was the first to capture the notion that there was a tippiing point - called an "Allee threshold" - where the animals would be safer and thus ultimately grow faster a a population. In other words, Allee's population curves describe a sort of ecological version of the network effect.

> These dynamics were first described in the [1930s](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/1930s.txt) by <Warder Clyde Allee>, a professor at the <University of Chicago> and a pioneer of American <ecology>. His paper <Studies in animal aggregations: Mass protection against colloidal silver among goldfishes> observed that goldfish grow more rapidly and can resist water toxicity when they are in groups. … This became an important concept in <biology> because it was the first to capture the notion that there was a tippiing point - called an "Allee threshold" - where the animals would be safer and thus ultimately grow faster a a population. In other words, Allee's population curves describe a sort of ecological version of the <network effect>.