Evolution Ecological niche either the role played by a species in a

biological community or the total set of environmental

Natural selection leads to evolution. factors that determine a species distribution

Adaptation: the acquisition of traits that allow a

species to survive in its environment Competitive exclusion principle states that no two species
can occupy the same ecological niche for long the one
Use of the term adapt in two ways: that is more efficient will exclude the other
1. Acclimation: process where in an individual organism
can respond immediately to a changing environment
Resource partitioning process that allows several
2. Natural selection: process of better-selected
species to utilize different parts of the same resource and
individuals passing their traits to the next generation
coexist within a single habitat
All species live within limits.
Speciation maintains diversity
Limitation:
1. physiological stress due to inappropriate levels of
some critical environmental factor, such as moisture, Speciation development of new species
light, temperature, pH, or specific nutrients
2. competition with other species
3. predation, including parasitism and disease Mechanism of speciation: geographic isolation (this is
4. luck termed allopatric speciation); behavioral isolation
(sympatric speciation)
Justus von Liebig (1840) proposed that the single factor in
shortest supply relative to demand is the critical factor
determining where a species lives, e.g. Saguaro cacti,
symbolic of the Sonoran Desert Prepared by: Terence L. Eday, RMT, MT(ASCP i), MPH

Ecologist Victor Shelford (18771968) later expanded

Liebigs principle by stating that each environmental factor
has both minimum and maximum levels, called tolerance Ad majorem, Dei gloriam!
limits, beyond which a particular species cannot survive or
is unable to reproduce

The principle of tolerance limits states that for every

environmental factor, an organism has both maximum and
minimum levels beyond which it cannot survive

Requirements and tolerances of species are useful

indicators of specific environmental characteristics
lichens and eastern white pine, indicators of air pollution
(extremely sensitive to sulfur dioxide and ozone,
respectively); troutused as indicator of good water
quality
Habitat place or set of environmental conditions in which
a particular organism lives
Population Biology

Population growth can be limited by mortality or slow

reproductive rates
Biotic potential unrestrained biological reproduction
Carrying capacity term for the number or biomass of a
species that can be supported in a certain area without
depleting resources
Shortages of food or other resources eventually lead to a
population crash or rapid dieback
Logistic growth S-shaped growth pattern (shape like a
logistic function used in math)
Logistic growth is density dependent growth rate depends
on population density
Density independent factors nonliving disturbances
(drought, fire, habitat destruction)

Reproductive strategies: k-selected or K-selected

Factors that contribute to growth rate: (1) births, (2)

immigration, (3) deaths, (4) emigration
Rate of growth = births + immigration deaths emigration

Human Populations

Every second, an average, 4 or 5 children are born

somewhere on the earth
Every second, two people die
2011, total world population is 7 billion and growing 1.13%
per year means adding 80 million per year
Perspectives on population growth:
o Overpopulation will cause resource depletion and
environmental degradation that threaten the ecological
life-support systems on which we all depend
 o Human ingenuity, technology, and enterprise can
extend the world carrying capacity and allow us to
overcome any problems we encounter
o Derives from social concern there are sufficient
resources for everyone, current shortages are only
signs of greed, waste, oppression. Root cause of
environmental degradation is inequitable distribution of
wealth and power rather than population size
I=PAT formula our environmental impacts (I) are the
product of our population size (P) times affluence (A) and
the technology (T) used to produce the goods and services
we consume
Demography Greek words demos (people) and graphos
(to write or to measure); it encompasses vital statistics
about people, i.e. births, deaths, and where they live, as
well as population size
Fecundity physical ability to reproduce
Fertility actual production of offspring
Crude birth rate most accessible demographic statistics
of fertility; number of births in a year per thousand
population
total fertility rate number of children born to an average
woman in a population during her entire reproductive life
Zero population growth (ZPG) occurs when births plus
immigration in a population just equal deaths plus
emigration
Life expectancy average age that a newborn infant can
expect to attain in any given society
Pronatalist pressure factors that increase peoples
desire to have babies
Demographic transition from high birth and death rates
to lower birth and death rates
4 conditions necessary for demographic transition to occur:
(1) improved standard of living, (2) increased confidence
that children will survive to maturity, (3) improved social
status of women, (4) increased availability and use of birth
control

Prepared by: Terence L. Eday, RMT, MT(ASCP i), MPH

Ad majorem, Dei gloriam!