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Chapter 4 Section 1 Outline

Population Ecology: Population Dynamics

I. Population Characteristics
A. Population density
The number of organisms per unit area is the population

B. Spatial distribution
dispersion is the spacing pattern of a population

Can be uniformed clumped groups or random
Pattern primarily driven by resources such as food






Uniform Random Clumped

C. Population ranges
A species range is its distribution across the environment.

A species might not be able to expand its population range because it
cannot survive the abiotic condition found in the expanded region.

II. Population-Limiting Factors
Limiting factors are biotic or abiotic forces that keep populations from increasing
indefinitely.

Limiting factors are either density independent or dependent density.

A. Density-independent factors
Any factor in the environment that does not depend on the number of
members in a population per unit area is a density independent factor.

Usually abiotic and include:
Weather events
Fire
Human alterations of the landscape
Air, land, and water pollution
Density-dependent factors
Any factor in the environment that depend on the number of members in
a population per unit area is a density dep factor

Often biotic, and include:
Predation
Disease
Competition
Parasites

B. Population growth rate
The pop. Gwt. Rt. (PGR) explains how fast a given population grows.

Nasality: birthrate of a population in a given year

Emigration: number of individuals moving away from a population

Immigration: number of individuals moving into a population

Exponential growth model:

Occurs when growth rate is proportional to population size

All populations grow exponentially until they encounter a limiting
factor








Lag time exponential growth

Logistic growth model:
Occurs when a populations growth slows or stops following
exponential growth

A population stops increasing when the number of birth number of
deaths, or when emigration immigration



Carrying
capacity


Lag phase S-curve

Carrying capacity
Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals in a species
that an environment can support