BISC302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Inflection Point, Metapopulation, Semelparity And Iteroparity
Document Summary
Often the growth of one population has an effect on the growth of another population. For example, as moose populations increase, wolf populations also increase. A local plant population is completely eradicated by a density-dependent factor. 500 year flood - washed away all individuals in the floodplain of the red clay creek. There might be a crash in population either to extinction or in boom and bust cycles. K = carrying capacity, # of individuals environment can support indefinitely. But conditions in nature are rarely ideal for long. Stochastic (random) processes especially important in small populations. Allee effect - population is so small that its hard to find a mate so the population can"t increase. Factors that do not tend to increase population size and decrease it when they are large. Depend on density of population, different effects depending on what density is. Have greater effect when population is large, lesser effect when population is small.