POPULATION ECOLOGYTabitha Walton and Heath Edwards

STUDIES THE DYNAMICS OF A SPECIES’ POPULATION AND HOW THESE POPULATIONS INTERACT WITH THEIR ENVIRONMENT

Population Ecology

TERMS AND VOCABULARY

Density: The number of individuals in a given area Sex Ratio: The number of males to females Density Dependent: Survival of the population depends on the

number of species Density Independent: No relation to population; Ex: natural disasters

and disease Limiting Resources: What limits a population; Ex: amount of

food/water/predators Carrying Capacity: The number of organisms an area can support Overshoot: When a population becomes larger than the carrying

capacity Die-off: Results after an overshoot, because there are not enough

resources to support the population

K- Selected R- Selected

High survival rates, but die out with older age, mature slowly, tend to be both predator and prey, mostly endangered, tend to be larger.

Ex: Humans, elephants, and sharks.

Have a lot of offspring, but very few make it to adulthood, mature rapidly, tend to be prey, not really endangered, tend to be smaller

Ex: Insects, bacteria, and rodents

SURVIVORSHIPType I Type II Type III

Reproduction occurs pretty early in life, low mortality rate at birth, high rate of surviving to adulthood, death rates increase at old age.

Ex: Humans, elephants, and sheep

Death rate is pretty uniform throughout all variety of ages, typically reach adult stages quickly.

Ex: Rodents and songbirds

Have great number of offspring and reproduce for most of their lifetime.

Ex: Sea turtles, fish, and oysters

SURVIVORSHIP

Type I Type II Type III

QUESTIONS

1.) What environmental factors affects carrying capacity? 2.) R-Selected species tend to have more offspring, how

does this affect their survival rate? 3.) That factors have extended the survival rate of

humans? 4.) What occurs to a J-shaped curved graph when it

reaches an overshoot? 5.) Explain the relationship between limiting resources

and a carrying capacity.

POPULATION ECOLOGY VIDEO AND SITES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBOsqmBQBQk

http://home.comcast.net/~sharov/PopEcol/lec1/whatis.html

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookpopecol.html

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Population_ecology