BIOL 123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: The Population Bomb, Theoretical Ecology, Limiting Factor
Document Summary
Populations are collections of inbreeding individuals and the basic units of ecology and evolution. Populations may grow exponentially for short periods of time. Might grow exponentially, but can"t keep up forever. In crowded populations, survival and fertility decline. Bigger with more food, smaller with less food. Get a smaller down of population rate due to death and the number of offspring had can be reduced by crowding. Space is the important limiting resource for some populations. Space is a limiting resource for certain organisms. Like starfish, as the surface of land is covered by other animals. Experimental and theoretical ecology began with investigations of single-species population growth. Density-regulated populations do not grow without bound. Reproductive rate will change as the population size changes. Net reproductive rate is a function of density. At low reproductive rate, density is high. When r is large, population size seems to fluctuate rapidly. Stability called the carrying capacity, is a function of r.
