Population Ecology
Population Ecology
Population Ecology
•Characteristics of Dynamics
•Size
•Density
•Dispersal
•Immigration
•Emigration
•Births
•Deaths
•Survivorship
Parameters that effect size or density of a population:
Immigration
Emigration
Table 52.1
–A graphic way of representing
the data is a survivorship
curve.
• This is a plot of the number of
individuals in a cohort still alive at
each age.
–A Type I curve shows a low death
rate early in life (humans).
–The Type II curve shows constant
mortality (squirrels).
–Type III curve shows a high death
rate early in life (oysters).
Survivorship Curve
• Reproductive rates.
– Demographers that study populations
usually ignore males, and focus on
females because only females give birth
to offspring.
– A reproductive table is an age-specific
summary of the reproductive rates in a
population.
• For sexual species, the table tallies the
number of female offspring produced by
each age group.
Reproductive Table
Life History
• The traits that affect an organism’s schedule
of reproduction and survival make up its life
history.
Life histories are very diverse, but they
exhibit patterns in their variability
• Life histories are a result of
natural selection, and often
parallel environmental factors.
• Some organisms, such as the
agave plant,exhibit what is
known as big-bang
reproduction, where large
numbers of offspring are
produced in each reproduction,
after which the individual
often dies.
Agaves
– This is also known as semelparity.
• By contrast, some organisms produce only
a few eggs during repeated reproductive
episodes.
– This is also known as iteroparity.
• What factors contribute to the evolution of
semelparity and iteroparity?
Limited resources mandate trade-offs
between investments in reproduction
and survival
• The life-histories represent an evolutionary
resolution of several conflicting demands.
– Sometimes we see trade-offs between survival
and reproduction when resources are limited.
• For example, red deer show a higher mortality
rate in winters following reproductive
episodes.
• Variations also occur in seed crop size
in plants.
– The number of offspring produced at each
reproductive episode exhibits a trade-off
between number and quality of offspring.
CARRYING CAPACITY
The maximum sustainable population
a particular environment can support
over a long period of time.
Figure 52.11 Population growth predicted by the logistic model
• How well does the logistic model fit the
growth of real populations?
– The growth of laboratory populations of
some animals fits the S-shaped curves
fairly well.