BIOL 100 Lecture 2: Ecology lecture notes 9-13-18
Document Summary
Group of individuals in same species living in same place at same time. Study of changes in populations over time. Factors that affect size, density, and growth. Requires: unlimited resources and a nearly vacant environment. Limiting factors: environmental constraints that cap population size. Carrying capacity: max population size that can survive in an environment. Very slow growth for most of human history. Increases dramatically in late 1800"s improved sanitation, nutrition, medical care. Exponential growth of humans is a problem bc overpopulation and use of a lot of resources (like ones that emit co2 in the air) Rough estimated: 10 billion (expected to reach by 2100) (if we were all vegetarians) But climate change will like reduce this capacity. Life histories maximizing success by. passing on genes. Community: all populations living in a particular space. Flow of energy and nutrients in an ecosystem. Simplified description of one part of trophic structure.