BIOL 2804 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Intraspecific Competition, Minimum Viable Population

• School: Virginia Tech
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIOL 2804
• Professor: Kate Langwig

Document Summary

Objectives: define carrying capacity, population regulation is influenced by: Introduce the logistic model of population growth: density. Intraspecific competition: stress and high densities, dispersal, social behavior, territoriality. Exponential model: the exponential model assumes, essential resources are not limited, the environment is constant. Organisms are limited in resources: birth and death rates typically depend on population size. Carrying capacity: the number of individuals that can be supported in a given area, rate of population growth slows with increasing density and eventually levels off. Density-dependence vs independent: density-dependent mortality increases in death rate as population density increases, density-dependent fecundity, density-independent factors, weather. What determines carrying capacity: factors that reduce birth rate or increase death rate as population size increases, typically biotic factors, competition for resources, predation, disease. Effects of competition: growth, development, mortality, reproduction. High density stress: hormonal changes, suppress growth. Social dominance: may regulate population growth, wolves.