9-28-09 Chapter 13: Populations Part 3: Population Ecology Population: unit of evolution a.

Organism: unit of natural selection What is a population? a. A group of organisms of the same species occupying a particular space at the same time. The organisms of the population mate with one another and produce fertile offspring. b. A population is characterized by density, age structure, birth rate, and death rate. c. Life tables Metapopulation a. A series of smaller, separate populations that mutually affect one another. These different groups of populations are united by the movement of individuals among them i. Desert bighorn in the southwest US Unitary and Modular Population a. Unitary Population a population consisting of unitary organisms i. A unitary organism has a predictable and dertimnate life. When a unitary individual dies, it is dead. ii. A unitary individual begins life as a unicellular zygote that resulted from sexual reproduction 1. Bats, caterpillars b. Modular Population a population consisting of modular organisms i. Modular organism has an unpredictable, indeterminate life. A module is not dead until all of its component modules are dead. ii. Begins life as a multi cellular outgrowth of another module (asexual/vegetatively produced) 1. Trembling aspen (populus tremuloides) most common woody species of the world, most widespread tree species in North America a. KNOW ITS SCIENTIFIC NAME iii. Roots of parent sent out to other areas to produce more plants (genetically identical) 1. Spider plant and snake plant common house plants a. Snake plant cut leaf and each leaf will grow into new plant
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5. A Modular Population: a. A Population or Organism? i. Can be argued both ways b. The worlds largest living organism Pando i. A clone of aspen trees west of Salt Lake City ii. Covers 200 acre area iii. Weighed about 13.2 million pounds 1. 60 times heavier than the worlds previously known largest living organism, a gigantic fungus located in Michigan hardwood forest 2. 33 times heavier than a blue whale (largest animal on earth) 3. 3 times heavier than the worlds largest sequoia tree 6. Population Density and Dispersion a. Population Density the size of population per unit of space. b. There are two types of density i. Crude density the number of individuals per unit area ii. Ecological density density measured in terms of the amount of area available as living space iii. Ex: there are 1200 deer in a 1000 km2 forest. 25% of the forest is covered by water and not habitable to deer 1. Crude density = 1200/1000 = 1.2 deer per sq km 2. Ecological density = 1200/750 c. Patterns of Population Dispersion i. Random distribution is considered random if the position of each individual is independent of the others or the occupation of each spot is equally likely 1. Ex: intertidal clams 2. Very uncommon ii. Spaced individuals are evenly distributed. Also called uniform 1. Ex: crops and lawn grasses, desert grasses iii. Clumped individuals are distributed in patches. 1. Ex: humans, aspen trees 2. The most common patter of dispersion d. Dispersal Movement i. Emigration the movement of an individual out of one habitat and into another 1. Individual is an emigrant ii. Immigration movement of an individual into one habitat from another 1. Individual is an immigrant
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7. Age Structure: Age Distribution a. Age structure of a population determines i. Reproductive rate ii. Death rates iii. Vigor iv. Survival rates b. Plotting the percentages of different age groups, older groups on top, pyramid graphs. c. See powerpoint slides 8. Sex Ratios a. Male vs. female b. For some populations a sex ratio is irrelevant i. Earthworms, apple orchard c. Mostly talking about mammals d. Sex Ratio the proportion of males to females (number of males per 100 females ---x:100) e. Primary Sex Ratio the ratio of sexes at conception (plants: fertilization) f. Secondary Sex Ratio the ratio of sexes at birth i. Some organisms may not survive birth or conception period g. Silene latifolia L. male and female flowers i. Sex is determined by x and y chromosomes, just like in humans ii. Male and female pollen grains grow at different speeds some populations are male biased, others are female biased. h. Males to Females ratio in humans (USA 1965) i. Age 0-4: 104:100 ii. Age 40-44: 100:100 iii. Age 60-64: 88:100 iv. Age 80-84: 54:100 i. Sex Ratio of Populus tremuloides (Colorado) i. Below 2,450m elevation --- 79:100 ii. Above 2,900m eleveation --- 178:100 iii. Conditions better at lower elevation or higher? LOWER ELEVATION iv. Why are more females found at lower elevation? 9. Mortality and Natality a. Natality i. Physiological natality maximum possible number of births per female under ideal conditions 1. 60 births for one woman record
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ii. Realized natality number of successful reproduction that actually occurs over a period of time 1. 2.8 iii. Crude Birth Rate number of births per 1000 iv. Age-specific birth rate (Age-specific fecundity) number of offspring produced per unit of time by females in different age classes 1. Needed for life table variables 2. Insects: per week, humans: per year b. Mortality i. Rate or number of deaths ii. Crude death rate number of deaths per 1000 iii. Death rate number of deaths during a given time interval divided by the average size of population iv. Ex: population of 1000, after 1 unit of time 990 remain. 10 deaths 1. 1000 800 -- 200 died 2. For death rate, divide number of dead by either initial pop. or average population v. Number of individuals is usually normalized to 1000. 10. Life Table a. Three Types: i. Horizontal life table (cohort/dynamic) following a cohort (group) of individuals until all are dead ii. Dynamic-composite life table constructed by pooling several horizontal life tables iii. Vertical life table (time-specific) constructed by sampling individuals of different ages during a single time period b. Life Table Construction: i. Average size of population the average of individuals at the beginning and at the end of a period ii. Death rate number of deaths during a given time interval divided by the average size of population iii. Probability of dying ratio of deaths to the number alive at the beginning of a period iv. Proportion surviving the number of survivors as a percentage of the number of individuals at time 0. v. Life expectancy the average number of years to be lived in the future by members of a given age in the population.

vi. SEE SLIDE 40 OF POWERPOINTS FOR FORMULAS TO CONSTRUCT LIFE TABLE. 1. Number dying 2. Proportion surviving 3. Mortality rate 4. Average # alive in class 5. Tx do this function from the bottom up when you do the life table 6. Life expectancy vii. Part of a Life Table ---the end of one age group is the beginning of the next age group. viii. KNOW INS AND OUTS OF LIFE TABLE! ix. Net Reproductive Rate 1. The number of breeding individuals that will be produced by each breeding individual in a population 2. Ro = sum(lxmx) a. Mx is a provided number (how many new individuals are produced by the females in that age class), but you must find lx b. When you are done doin lxmx, add them all together. 3. Ro > 1: population is growing in size 4. Ro = 1: population is stable 5. Ro < 1: population is decreasing in size 11. Survivorship a. Three basic types of survivorship i. Type I starts high, outward curve 1. Many mammals 2. Most organisms die late in life ii. Type II negative slope, linear 1. Many birds, small mammals, lizards, turtles 2. Uniform rate of decline 3. Survivorship doesn t change much throughout life 4. Doesn t differ with age iii. Type III inward curve (exponential look but starts high) 1. Many invertebrates butterfly, insects 2. Huge decline in young 3. Many of young become the food of other organisms b. How is a survivorship curve constructed?
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i. Plotting age or time on x axis ii. Plotting survivors # on y axis iii. Very rapid decrease in population something bad happened like war or disease, drought iv. Example curves in powerpoint slides (sept 28-30) 1. These are what they will look like on test.