Population Ecology

Population as a Unit of Study

• Population
– A group of organisms of the same species occupying a
particular space at a particular time

• Demes
– Groups of interbreeding organisms, the smallest
collective unit of a plant or animal population
 Population as a Unit of Study
• Population has group and not individual
characteristics
• Basic characteristics of a population:
– Density (no/area; no/vol)
– Size (numbers)
– Age Structure (based on age distribution)
– Dispersion (the spread of individuals in
relation to one another)
 emigration

mortality DENSITY natality

Four basic population

immigration
parameters
 Density: no of organisms per unit area or
per unit volume

Natality: the reproductive output of a population

(birth, reproduction)

Mortality: the death of organisms in a population

Immigration: the no of organisms moving into

area occupied by the population

Emigration: the no of organisms moving out of

the area occupied by the population

Immigration and Emigration are referred to as Migration

 Population parameters
• Population parameters affect population
density
Natality

+ -
Immigration Population Emigration
density

-
Mortality
 How to estimate population
density?
• Techniques differ between organisms
such that the technique to estimate deer
cannot be applied to bacteria or protozoa
or vice versa
• There are 2 fundamental attributes that
affect and ecologists choice of technique
for population estimation
Mobility
-based on movements of these organisms

2 attributes

Size
-small animals/plants are usually more abundant
than large animals/plants
 Why the need to estimate
population density?

• Estimates of population are made for two

reasons:
– How to quantify nature – ecologist role
– Estimates are allows for comparisons between
different populations in terms of space and
time measure
 Absolute density
No of individual per area/ per volume
Important for conservation and management

2 broad approaches to estimate pop density

Relative density
Comparative no of organisms
Two areas of equal sizes, which area has more organism
e.g, between area x and y
Area x has more organism than area y
 Absolute density
• Making total counts and by using sampling
methods
• Total counts - direct counting of
populations
- human pop census,
- trees in a given area,
- breeding colonies can be photographed then
later counted
- in general total counts are possible for few
animals
 Measurements of Absolute
density
• Sampling methods
– to count only a small proportion of the
population - sample
• Using the sample to estimate the total
population
• 2 general sampling techniques:
1) Use of quadrats
2) Capture-recapture method
 Use of quadrats

Count all individuals on several quadrats of known size,

then extrapolate the average count to the whole area

Quadrat- a sampling area of any shape (may be a

rectangle, triangle or circle)

3 requirements:
● the pop in the quadrat must be determined exactly
● area of the quadrat must be known
● quadrat/s must be representative of the area
● achieved by random sampling
 Quadrat sampling in
plant population
• Conduct a transect in the upland hardwood
forest
• 3 transect line, 110 meters long, count all trees
taller than 25cm within 1meter of each line
• By utilising the quadrat method sampling for old
trees and seedlings, we can determine if
populations were likely to change over time
 Capture recapture method

Capture, marking, release, and recapture-important for mobile animals

Why?-it allows not only an estimate of density but also estimates of birth rate
and death rate for the population being studied

Capture animal, mark (tag) them and then release them

Peterson method:
Involves 2 sampling periods
Capture, mark and release at time 1
Capture and check for marked animals at time 2

Time intervals between the 2 samples must be short because this method
assumes a closed population with no recruitment of new individuals into the
Population between time 1 and 2 and no losses of marked individuals
 Formula for capture-recapture
method

Marked animals in 2nd sample = Marked animals in 1st sample

Total caught in 2nd sample Total population size
e.g of capture recapture method
• Dahl marked trout in small Norwegian
lakes to estimate the size of the
population that was subject to fishing. He
marked and released 109 trout, and in 2nd
sample a few days later caught 177 trout,
of which 57 were marked. From the data,
what is the estimate population size?
e.g of capture recapture method
• By using the formula

57 = 109
177 Total pop size

Total pop size = (109 X 177)

57
= 338 trout
 Relative density
• Traps – no caught per day per trap – animals
caught will depend on their density, activity and
range of movement, skill in placing traps – rough
idea of abundance – night flying insects, pitfall
traps for beetles, suction traps for aerial insects
• Fecal pellets – rabbits, deer, field mice –
provides an index of pop size
• Vocalization frequency – bird calls per 10 mins,
can be used for frogs, cicadas, crickets
• Pelt records – trapper records dates back 300
years – of lynx
Relative density
• Catch per unit effort – index of fish
abundance – no of fish per cast net or no of
fish per 1 hour trawling
• Number of artifacts – thing left behind –
pupal cases of emerging insects
• Questionnaires – to sportsmen (eg fish)and
trappers
• Cover - % ground surface covered – in
botany, invertebrate studies of the rocky
intertidal zone
• Feeding capacity – bait taken – for rats and
mice – index of density
• Roadside counts – birds observed while
driving standard distances
 Natality
• The production of new individuals by birth,
hatching, germination or fission
• 2 aspects of reproduction must be
distinguished:
• Fecundity
• fertility
 Natality
• Fecundity-physiological notion that refers to an
organism’s potential reproductive capacity
• Fertility-ecological concept based on the no of
viable offspring produced during a period time
• Realized fertility and potential fecundity-we must
be able to distinguish between them
 Natality
• E.g, realized fertility rate for a human pop
may be only 1 birth per 15 years per
female in the child-bearing ages
• While the potential fecundity rate for
humans is 1 birth per 10 to 11 months per
female in the childbearing ages
 Mortality
• Biologists-interested not only in why
organisms die but also why they die at a
given age
• Longevity-the age of death of individuals
in a population
• 2 types:
– Potential longevity
– Realized longevity
 Mortality
• Potential longevity
– The maximum life span of an individual of a particular
sp is a limit set by the physiology of the organism, such
that it simply dies of old age
– The average longevity of individuals living under
optimum conditions
– However, organisms rarely live under optimum
conditions-most die from disease, or eaten by
predators or succumb to a number of natural hazards
 Mortality
• Realized longevity
– The actual life span of an organism
– Can be measured in the field, while potential
longevity only in labs or zoos
 examples
• European robin has an average life
expectation of 1 year in the wild, whereas
it can live at least 11 year in captivity
Population dispersion
patterns
random

clumped 3 types uniform

Population dispersion patterns
• Random-when the position of each
individuals in a pop is independent of
the others
• Uniform-it results as a form of some
negative interactions
• Common among animal pop where
individuals defend an area for their
own exclusive use (teritoriality) or in
plant pop where severe competition
exist for belowground resources, i.e
water or nutrients
 Population dispersion patterns
• Clumped-where individuals occur in
groups
• Reason-suitable habitat or resources may
be distributed as patches on a larger
landscape
DEMOGRAPHIC
TECHNIQUES
A technique to summarize how mortality
occurs in a population

Is mortality high among juveniles?

Do older organisms have a higher

mortality rate than younger organisms?
 Life tables
• Developed to describe the mortality
schedule of a population
• An age-specific summary of the mortality
rates operating on a cohort of individuals
• Cohort-may include the entire population,
or only males or only individuals born in a
given year
Cohort life tables
●generation or horizontal life tables

●following the cohort throughout life – eg., annual seeds or

lambs born.

Static life tables

●stationary, time specific, current, vertical life tables

●records of age at death – individuals in sample are born at

different times on basis of cross section of a pop at a specific

time

Age distribution
●consists of proportion of individuals of different ages within a

pop
●can estimate survival by calculating the difference in proportion

of individuals in succeeding age classes

●produces a static life table and assumes that the difference in

numbers between age classes is a result of mortality

• Mortality is a key parameter that drive
pop change, therefore we need to quantify
it in a population
– It is high among juveniles, adults?
• We can quantify mortality by constructing
a life table – mortality schedule of a
population – age specific summary of
mortality rates operating on a cohort (= a
group born at the same time) (you are not
required to know how to construct or
calculate a life table – understand it!)
e.g of cohort life table for the song sparrow
Age in Observed Proportion No dying Rate of
years (x) no of birds surviving at within age mortality
alive (nx) start of age interval x to (qx)
interval x x+1 (dx)
(lx)

0 115 1.0 90 0.78

1 25 0.217 6 0.24
2 19 0.165 7 0.37
3 12 0.104 10 0.83
4 2 0.017 1 0.50
5 1 0.009 1 1.0
6 0 0.0 - -
 Type 1- low type of mortality for most of the life span
and then high losses of older organisms
Humans and large mammals

Type 2- constant per capita rate of mortality independent of age

eg birds, squirrels

Types of survivorship curves

Type 3-High per capita mortality early in life, followed by a period of much lower
and relatively constant loss
Fishes, invertebrates, parasites
Fig. 10.14
Fig. 10.15
Fig. 10.16
Age Distribution
Fig. 11.24
POPULATION GROWTH
 Population growth
• Refers to how the number of individuals in
a population increases or decreases with
time (N, t)
• Reflects the difference between rates of
birth and death
• in pop, if new births occur
• in pop, if death occurs
 Population growth
Change in pop size births during – deaths during
during time interval = time interval time interval

If N represents pop size and t represents time

then ΔN is the change in pop size and Δt is the time
interval

So, the equation:

ΔN = B-D
Δt
B-the number of births in pop
D-the number of deaths in pop
 Population growth
• Let r = b - d
• Then, the equation,
dN/dt = rN

The rate of change of population (dN/dt) is a

function of r (rate of increase) and the
population size (N)
 Geometric Growth
• When generations do not overlap, growth can
be modeled geometrically.

Nt = Noλt

– Nt = Number of individuals at time t.

– No = Initial number of individuals.
– λ = Geometric rate of increase.
– t = Number of time intervals or generations.
 Exponential Growth
• Continuous population growth in an unlimited
environment can be modeled exponentially.

dN / dt = rmax N

• Appropriate for populations with overlapping

generations.
– As population size (N) increases, rate of
population increase (dN/dt) gets larger.
 Exponential Growth
• For an exponentially growing population,
size at any time can be calculated as:

Nt = Noert

• Nt = number individuals at time t.

• N0 = initial number of individuals.
• e = base of natural logarithms.
• r (= rmax ) = per capita rate of increase.
• t = number of time intervals.
 Exponential
population growth

dN = rmaxN
dt

2 types of pop growth

Population Growth Logistic population

Mathematically growth
Defined
dN = rmaxN (K-N)
dt K
N=K/2
 Logistic Population Growth

• As resources are depleted, population growth

rate slows and eventually stops: logistic
population growth.
– Sigmoid (S-shaped) population growth curve.
– Carrying capacity (K) is the number of individuals
of a population the environment can support.
• Finite amount of resources can only support a finite
number of individuals.
 Logistic Population Growth

dN/dt = rmaxN(1-N/K)

• rmax = Maximum per capita rate of increase

under ideal conditions.
• When N nears K, the right side of the
equation nears zero.
– As population size increases, logistic growth rate
becomes a small fraction of growth rate.
• Highest when N=K/2.
• N/K = Environmental resistance.
 Limits to Population Growth
• Environment limits population growth by altering
birth and death rates.
– Density-dependent factors
• Disease, Parasites, Resource Competition
– Populations do not show continuous geometric increase
– When density increases other organisms reduces the fertility
and longevity of the individuals in the population
– This reduces the rate of increase of the pop until eventually the
pop ceases to grow
– The growth curve is defined as the sigmoid curve, S – shaped
– K = carrying capacity (upper asymptote or maximum value) –
the maximum number of individuals that environment can
support
– Density-independent factors
• Natural disasters
• Climate
Fig. 11.9
 Galapagos Finch Population
Growth
• Boag and Grant - Geospiza fortis was
numerically dominant finch (1,200).
• After drought of 1977, population fell to
(180).
• Food plants failed to produce seed crop.
• 1983 - 10x normal rainfall caused population to
grow (1,100) due to abundance of seeds and
caterpillars.
 Cactus Finches and Cactus
Reproduction
• Grant and Grant documented several
ways finches utilized cacti:
– Open flower buds in dry season to eat pollen
– Consume nectar and pollen from mature
flowers
– Eat seed coating (aril)
– Eat seeds
– Eat insects from rotting cactus pads
 Cactus Finches and Cactus
Reproduction
• Finches tend to destroy stigmas, thus
flowers cannot be fertilized.
– Wet season activity may reduce seeds
available to finches during the dry season.
– Opuntia helleri main source for cactus
finches.
• Negatively impacted by El Nino (1983).
– Stigma snapping delayed recovery.
» Interplay of biotic and abiotic factors.
Human Growth
Fig. 11.24