Chapter 8

1. Chapter 8 Population Ecology

2. POPULATION DYNAMICS AND CARRYING CAPACITY • Most populations live in clumps although other patterns occur based on resource distribution.

3. (a) Clumped (elephants)

4. (b) Uniform (creosote bush)

11. (c) Random (dandelions)

12. Changes in Population Size: Entrances and Exits • Populations increase through births and immigration • Populations decrease through deaths and emigration

13. Age Structure: Young Populations Can Grow Fast • How fast a population grows or declines depends on its age structure. • Prereproductive age: not mature enough to reproduce. • Reproductive age: those capable of reproduction. • Postreproductive age: those too old to reproduce.

14. Limits on Population Growth: Biotic Potential vs. Environmental Resistance • No population can increase its size indefinitely. • The intrinsic rate of increase (r) is the rate at which a population would grow if it had unlimited resources. • Carrying capacity (K): the maximum population of a given species that a particular habitat can sustain indefinitely without degrading the habitat.

15. Exponential and Logistic Population Growth: J-Curves and S-Curves • Populations grow rapidly with ample resources, but as resources become limited, its growth rate slows and levels off.

16. Environmental Resistance Carrying capacity (K) Population size (N) Biotic Potential Exponential Growth Time (t)

17. Exponential Growth PLAY ANIMATION

18. Logistic Growth PLAY VIDEO

19. Exponential and Logistic Population Growth: J-Curves and S-Curves • As a population levels off, it often fluctuates slightly above and below the carrying capacity.

20. Overshoot Carrying capacity Number of sheep (millions) Year

21. Exceeding Carrying Capacity: Move, Switch Habits, or Decline in Size • Members of populations which exceed their resources will die unless they adapt or move to an area with more resources.

22. Population overshoots carrying capacity Population Crashes Number of reindeer Carrying capacity Year

23. Exceeding Carrying Capacity: Move, Switch Habits, or Decline in Size • Over time species may increase their carrying capacity by developing adaptations. • Some species maintain their carrying capacity by migrating to other areas. • So far, technological, social, and other cultural changes have extended the earth’s carrying capacity for humans.

24. Population Density and Population Change: Effects of Crowding • Population density: the number of individuals in a population found in a particular area or volume. • A population’s density can affect how rapidly it can grow or decline. • e.g. biotic factors like disease • Some population control factors are not affected by population density. • e.g. abiotic factors like weather

25. Types of Population Change Curves in Nature • Population sizes may stay the same, increase, decrease, vary in regular cycles, or change erratically. • Stable: fluctuates slightly above and below carrying capacity. • Irruptive: populations explode and then crash to a more stable level. • Cyclic: populations fluctuate and regular cyclic or boom-and-bust cycles. • Irregular: erratic changes possibly due to chaos or drastic change.

26. Types of Population Change Curves in Nature • Population sizes often vary in regular cycles when the predator and prey populations are controlled by the scarcity of resources.

27. Hare Lynx Population size (thousands) Year

28. Capture-Recapture Method PLAY ANIMATION

29. REPRODUCTIVE PATTERNS • Some species reproduce without having sex (asexual). • Offspring are exact genetic copies (clones). • Others reproduce by having sex (sexual). • Genetic material is mixture of two individuals. • Disadvantages: males do not give birth, increase chance of genetic errors and defects, courtship and mating rituals can be costly. • Major advantages: genetic diversity, offspring protection.

30. Sexual Reproduction: Courtship • Courtship rituals consume time and energy, can transmit disease, and can inflict injury on males of some species as they compete for sexual partners.

31. Reproductive Patterns:Opportunists and Competitors • Large number of smaller offspring with little parental care (r-selected species). • Fewer, larger offspring with higher invested parental care (K-selected species).

32. Carrying capacity K K species; experience K selection Number of individuals r species; experience r selection Time

33. Reproductive Patterns • r-selected species tend to be opportunists while K-selected species tend to be competitors.

34. r-Selected Species Cockroach Dandelion Many small offspring Little or no parental care and protection of offspring Early reproductive age Most offspring die before reaching reproductive age Small adults Adapted to unstable climate and environmental conditions High population growth rate (r) Population size fluctuates wildly above and below carrying capacity (K) Generalist niche Low ability to compete Early successional species

35. K-Selected Species Elephant Saguaro Fewer, larger offspring High parental care and protection of offspring Later reproductive age Most offspring survive to reproductive age Larger adults Adapted to stable climate and environmental conditions Lower population growth rate (r) Population size fairly stable and usually close to carrying capacity (K) Specialist niche High ability to compete Late successional species

36. Survivorship Curves: Short to Long Lives • The way to represent the age structure of a population is with a survivorship curve. • Late loss population live to an old age. • Constant loss population die at all ages. • Most members of early loss population, die at young ages.

37. Survivorship Curves: Short to Long Lives • The populations of different species vary in how long individual members typically live.

38. Late loss Constant loss Percentage surviving (log scale) Early loss Age

39. Animation: Life History Patterns PLAY ANIMATION

40. Coral Spawning PLAY VIDEO

41. Kelp Forest (Channel Islands) PLAY VIDEO

42. Salmons Swimming Upstream PLAY VIDEO

43. Otter Feeding PLAY VIDEO