Are questions on biogeochemistry and on basic population dynamics on topic?

Question

Recently, this homework question was asked here:

How to use Maximum Sustainable Yield concept with given a given population, growth rate and carrying capacity?

It is about fish growth modeled by a simple logistic growth function. According to the "What is ontopic" page, this question is not on topic.

On the first look, the question looks like a biology question. However, in my opinion, it is rather a mathematical question on working with dynamical systems. Currently, the Earthscience.SE seems to be the most appropriate site for this question except for Physics.SE. The people, who are active on these sites have the mathematical background knowledge.

There might be more questions on modeling marine biogeochemical processes (fish-algae-nutrients-physics-systems) coming in future. The modeling of population dynamics was "invented"/introduced by physicists and mathematicians. Although the application of these models is in the field of biology, the actual tools are often not mastered by biologists but by earth-scientists. Hence, technical question on population dynamics and biogeochemical processes might be reasonably answered here. Do we accept these questions here? If not, is there another Stackexchange site, to which we can redirect them?

Answer 1

The OP has since posted that question on Sustainable Living, which is the most appropriate site for this question (short of the creation of a Farming.SE), considering the question was essentially "how much of my livestock should I kill to eat and how much should I keep alive to reproduce more".

As far as the broader question you're asking here, I'd say:

• population dynamics questions are most likely on topic as a mathematical subcategory on Biology.SE or, if purely about the mathematics of a specific model or data set, Math.SE or MathOverflow.

  Despite its name, Earth Science.SE seems to be tailored more toward physical sciences (the list at the Help Center mentions "meteorology, geophysics, geology, climatology, oceanography, geochemistry, hydrology" as a list of on-topic subjects. Though that list is not exhaustive, it does have a constant theme - each of those Earth science subjects is a physical one, not a theoretical or purely statistical one.

• despite the "bio" in the name, biogeochemistry focuses specifically on geochemistry and the interaction of specific elements with large-scale geological features and biospheres, so it should be well at home here.