Population Ecology Quiz – Flashcards

the changes in population size and the factors that regulate populations over time - impact with their environment

A collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species living together in an area.

A group of interacting organisms sharing an environment.

A living component of a biological community (eg. grass, animals, bacteria etc.)

A non-living component of an ecosystem (eg. water, air, temperature, solar energy etc)

The study of how members of a population interact with their environment, focusing on factors that influence population density and growth.

1. Immigration (I) - movement of new individuals from another area into the population 2. Natality (N) - the birth rate of a population 3. Emigration (E) - the movement of individuals out of a population to another area. 4. Mortality (M) - the death rate of a population.

Population Size = (N+I)-(M+E)

The number of individuals of a certain species per unit area or volume.

How the population is dispersed in an area. (eg clumped, uniform or random). clumped - individuals are in patches uniform - individuals are evenly distributed random - there is an unpredictable distribution

1. Sample plot method. 2. Mark recapture method.

Count the number of organisms of the study species in a plot of a known size.

In a sessile population (stationary organisms) eg. plants

Population Density = Number of individuals in a population sample plots/total area of all sample plots.

Use two trapping events. First, the study area is determined and a trap is set. All animals caught in the trap are marked and released. Later, the traps are set again and the proportion of parked to unmarked animals captured in the second trapping gives an estimate of the number of individuals in a population.

Organisms that are moving (eg mice)

Population Density = M x C/R M = total number of animals captured and marked in the first trapping event. C = total number of animals captured in the second trapping event. R. = number of animals captured int the first trap that were recaptured in the second trapping event.

A graph that allows population ecologists to estimate how many members of an original study group are still alive at different time intervals.

Type 1 - Curve in which there are few offspring born and there is good parental care so that most of the individuals live to an old age. (eg elephants, humans, large mammals) Type II - The organisms die at an equal rate at all ages. There is some parental care (eg. rodents and birds) Type III - Many offspring are produced because many do not survive in the first few days. If they do survive they have few predators (eg mussels, grasses, oysters etc.)

The average contribution of each individual to population growth.

The highest possible rate of per capita increase for a population.

The biotic and abiotic factors in the environment.

Factors that restrict population growth thus preventing it from achieving its biotic potential.

Limited food supply, size of habitat, accumulation of waste, and natural disasters.

Density dependent factors are a result of the population itself limiting growth (eg. build up of waste from the population or overgrazing can limit the growth. Density independent factors are from an outside influence such as fires, droughts, temperature etc.

When limiting factors cause the growth of a population to level off this creates a logistic growth pattern.

1. slow growth - part at the beginning of the curve where population is slowly increasing 2. Exponential growth - part if the middle where the population is increasing rapidly. 3. Carrying capacity (population equilibrium) - the part at the end of the curve where the population growth stays fairly constant. This is the maximum population size the environment can maintain.

Curve which shows unregulated population growth.

Humans (our population is increasing out of control).

This lead to improved livestock and increased crop yields so population could increase.

There was a massive deadly epidemic in Europe (the bubonic plague which killed over 1/3 of the population in Europe.

The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines which prolong lives.

Lack of food, space resources etc.

The variety of living things including genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity?

1. Genetic Diversity - having lots of different genes in a population 2. Species diversity - having lots of different organisms in a population. 3. Ecosystem diversity - having lots of different ecosystems in the world.

An estimate of the amount of land required to provide the raw materials an individual or nation consumes including food, fuel water, housing and waste disposal.

People in the developed world (eg Canada and the US) have a much higher per person ecological footprint than in the undeveloped world (eg India) because we use more resources per person. There is over consumption by the individual.

Drive less, fly less, eat less meat, turn off electronics consume less by buying only what you need, not what you want, eat locally, reduce, reuse, recycle.

The total number of different species in a community., the number and relative abundance of species in a biological community

variety of habitats, living communities, and ecological processes in the living world

sum total of all the different forms of genetic information carried by all organisms living on Earth today