Intraspecific Population Regulation

11/17/2015

Intraspecific Population Regulation:

No population is able to grow indefinitely
What are the limitations imposed by members from the same
species?
The environment functions to limit population growth:
The exponential population growth model is based on several
assumptions about the environment
o dN/dt (b d)N
what are these assumptions?
o Unlimited essential resources
o A constant environment
What happens when resource consumption is greater than replenishment?
Birth and death rates are NOT constant
The environment functions to limit population growth
The line representing change in birthrate as a function in population
size is described by
o B = b0 aN
o A is slope of the line deltaB/N
b0 is the maximum birthrate under ideal conditions, used in the
exponential growth model
b is the actual birthrate b0 reduced by aN as population size
increases
The line representing change in death rate as a function of
population size is described by
o dd0 +cN
where d0 is the y-intercept and c is the slope of the line
(d/N)
d0 is the minimum death rate under ideal conditions, used in the
exponential growth model

 d is the actual death rate d0 increased by cN as population size

increases
Limit to growth
If d = b, then
dN/dt = 0
The population size at which birthrate is equal to death rate is
the maximum sustainable size in the current environment
K(b0 d0)/(a+c)
K is the carrying capacity: max sustainable population size for a
prevailing environment
This is the logistic model of population growth
This model has two components:
rN exponential growth
(1 N/K) - slowing of population
Inflection Point
Definition: a point of curve where ..
A parabola where it reaches its maximum K/2
Gray Squirrel population example:
K = 200
R = 0.18 calculated from life table
The initial population size is 30 individuals
Exponential vs logistic
Slowed down growth so dont reach carrying capacity as quickly
What size will the population show its maximum rate of growth? At k/2
Population regulators
Negative feedback loops regulated by population density

o Used for regulation

o Keep something stable
o Body temperature rises, you sweat, it cools you down and
your body temp drops, etc etc
Positive feedback loops
o Example: account balance grows, more interest earned, more
growth
o Global warming is an example of positive feedback
As population density increase, resource availability decreases, and
that decrease helps to regulate the population
Density dependent population regulation
Two places to control population: birth and death
Reduce amount of births you have or death rate increasing
This is to stabilize your population
Model: birth rates stay the same but your death rate increases youll
still have a stable population
Or your birth rate decreases and you have same death rate youll
have stable population
Or you have both: death rate increase and birth rate decrease
Population regulation involves density dependence
Not enough space in the environment; reduced resource availability
Changes in patterns of predation; more predators
Spread of disease and parasites
Density-independent factors:
Storm, floods, fires, drought
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time

Competition results when resources are limited

Why do organisms of the same species compete? They all need the
same resources: same mates, same food, same habitat
Competition only happens when resources are limited
Intraspecific competition: same species competing
Scramble competition limited resources and everybody struggles;
water availability in a drought
o Growth and reproduction are depressed equally among all
individuals
o Can result in all individuals having insufficient resources
o Can lead to extinction of a local population
Contest competition some winners, some losers; some individuals
will do very well and others will perish
o Only the unsuccessful will perish
o Only negatively affects the unsuccessful individuals
Scramble and contest are usually species specific but at different
stages of life cycles they can shift
Early life = scramble; later life = contest in some insects
Exploitation: competition that is indirect
Not all directly fighting, but less for you and less for me; trees take
up water in the soil and leave less water for other trees
Interference: direct competition taking resource from another
individual
Use resources and prevent other individuals from accessing those
resources
o Bird species fighting over a nesting area
In agriculture, many studies on density: plants for a given area
As density increased, the weight of each plant decrease
Net photosynthesis decreased

Mean leaf area decreased

Only increase: leaf area ratio; take leaf area divided by total
biomass; so whatever food the plants can get theyre putting it into
their leaves for more photosynthesis (not going to roots, stems,
etc)
Intraspecific competition:
Phenotypic plasticity how is the organism able to change in the
environment even though it has its basic gene structure
o Individuals change in according to competition for resources
so that if they can get food they will
o Population growth decreases but the organisms themselves
increase in size, etc, better utilization for resources
Increase in offspring: probability of survival decreases
Competition for resources at high population densities can suppress
individual growth and decrease individual survival
Self-thinning: caused by the combined effect of density-dependent
mortality and growth within a population
Artificial stream channel experiments:
Control the food and number of individual in the environment
Look at how mortality and growth was affected
Interesting: at high densities, and enough food, theyre okay
o Not that negatively effected despite high density
When food becomes a shortage, a lot of mortality
At high density = decrease in growth rate since not enough space
even if theres enough food
Intraspecific competition can reduce reproduction
When population density is higher, females show reduced weight
gain
Have less children throughout their life cycle
Mean age of first reproduction increases, reproducing later and
have less children
Negative feedback loop that protects population from moving past
carrying capacity

In soybean populations: individual seed production is greatly reduced

at highly densities
Growing less gets more beans
o In glasswort, an annual herb, the number of seeds produced
per plant declines with increasing density
High density is very stressful for individuals
Affects fecundity and maturity
Stress releases hormones that affect individuals
Dispersal can be density dependent
When a population becomes too dense, populations will disperse
Example: oldest females will disperse in some squirrels
Social behavior:
Two opposing factors:
o Finding a mate and need for individual space
Find: carnivores need the most space
Too little of a population can also hurt your population
Species dont have enough of their population and affects their
social structure and their ability to reproduce
American ginseng is an example: has been harvested for medicinal
use, resulting in very small population sizes
o When its over-harvested, less likely to reproduce
o Also fruit production per plant declined with decreasing
population size
o Fewer plants were visited by pollinators
They would rather go to a place where theres a lot of
flowers available for them to get the food they need
When flowering gets below a certain amount, the
population size will decline even more since pollinators
wont visit

Small populations
Distance between colonies increased
Decrease in colony size
Always had to be vigilant
Gained protection while being in a group; when didnt have enough
looking for predators theyd spend too much time doing that rather
than feeding themselves and grow and reproduce
As a result, as population decline the ability to reproduce declined
as well
Spruce budworm: in times of drought or temperatures lower, theyll
start to grow everywhere and stress the trees
Cause a dieback in the forest
When the water comes back and temperatures get warmer, the
budworm population declines and the trees get better
Can directly relate population to density independent factors
- the conservation of populations requires understanding the minimum
viable population and carrying capacity
minimum viable population: the number of individuals necessarily
to ensure long term survival of a species despite storms, disease,
everything
the number must be large enough to withstand chance variations in
o births and deaths, climate changes, etc
MVP determined through understanding the life history of the
species and the ability of individuals to disperse among habitat
patches
Genetic models suggest vertebrates need to be more than 1000 to
survive
o For invertebrates and plants, MVP is 10,000
Population viability analysis: forecasting population dynamics in the
future and see where the numbers will go to 0
Minimum dynamic area: not enough to think about just numbers, think
about how much area is available to them
Gives an estimate of area per individual
Found: large carnivores need much larger area than large and small
herbivores

1000 grizzly bears need 2 million km^2

in order to have large carnivores, we need to create nature reserves
for them
Montana study: any population less than 50 individuals became
locally extinct within 50 years (walking dead, just a matter of time
they will become extinct)
Conservation efforts: create corridors for populations to move
between areas to keep them alive and healthy
Plants holding territory
Dump soil so only they can use it
Shade other plants with their leaves
Cover the ground with leaves to stop any sprouting from going on
Can deplete soil resources in their root zone