The Biology of Populations

Population Characteristics

1. Population Density:
 The number of organisms per unit
area of land or volume of water
2. Spatial Distribution:
 Dispersion: The pattern of spacing
of a population within an area
 3 main types of dispersion:
 Clumped
 Uniform
 Random
 The primary cause of dispersion is
resource availability
Population Characteristics

3. Population growth rate

 How fast a given population grows
 Factors that determine this are:
 Natality (birth rate)
 Mortality (death rate)
 Emigration (the number of individuals moving away from a
population)
 Immigration (the number of individuals moving into a
population)
 Population Characteristics

4. Actual population growth is

a simple formula:

NATALITY + IMMIGRATION = MORTALITY + EMIGRATION

Understanding Exponentials

 Put your pens down for a minute and think about

this:
 An employer offers you two equal jobs for one hour each day
for fourteen days.
 The first pays $10 an hour.
 The second pays only 1 cent the first day, but the rate doubles
each day.
 Which job will you accept?
Understanding Exponentials 1->2->4->8->16

Job 1 Job 2

90
80 Now, how much would
your employer owe you
70
if you stayed at this job
60
for another 2 weeks?
50 Job 2 lags for a long
40 time before What would happen if this
30 exponential growth type of growth took place
20 kicks in! within a population?
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Population Growth

 Population growth models

 Exponential growth model
 First growth phase is slow and called the lag phase
 Second growth phase is rapid and called the exponential growth
phase
 Unchecked, this produces a J curve

 Bacteria can grow at this rate, so why aren’t we up to our ears in

bacterial cells?
Population Growth

What population do
you think this is?
 Population Growth

Elephants in Kruger National Park, SA

Why do you think this

is happening? Be a
conservation manager!
 Population Growth with Limiting Factors

 Population growth models

 But usually there are limits to exponential growth
 Population Density – as the absolute number of individuals
increases, so does the number of individuals per unit area
 Competition follows as nutrients and resources are used up, so
population growth slows – this is the third or transitional phase
 Eventually the population size stabilises – the plateau phase
 This produces a sigmoid (S) curve for population growth
 The limit to population size that a particular environment can
support is called carrying capacity (k)
Population Growth with Limiting Factors

The Sigmoid (S)

Curve of
Population
growth
Population Growth Limiting Factors

 Density-independent factors
 Factors that limit population size, regardless of population
density
 These are usually abiotic factors

 They include natural phenomena, such as weather events

 Drought, floods, extreme
heat or cold, tornadoes,
hurricanes, fires, etc.
Population Growth Limiting Factors

 Density-dependent factors
 Any factor in the environment that depends on the size of a
population per unit area
 Usually biotic factors

 These include:
 Predation
 Disease
 Parasites
 Competition
Population Growth Limiting Factors