I. Population Characteristics A. Population density The number of organisms per unit area is the _Population Density_____________
B. Spatial distribution ___Dispersion________ is the spacing pattern of a population
Can be _Uniform______, _____Clumped___ _______, or ___Random____
Pattern primarily driven by resources such as food
Uniform Random Clumped
C. Population ranges A species range is its Distribution_________________ across the environment.
A species might not be able to expand its population range because it cannot survive the _Abiotic______ Conditions___________ found in the expanded region.
II. Population-Limiting Factors Limiting factors are ___ Biotic___ or __Abiotic_____ forces that keep populations from increasing indefinitely.
Limiting factors are either ___density-independent_________________ or __density-dependent________________.
A. Density-independent factors Any factor in the environment that does not depend on the number of members in a population per unit area is a _____density-independent factor____________________
Usually abiotic and include: Weather events fire Human alterations of the landscape Air, land and water pollution
B. Density-dependent factors Any factor in the environment that depend on the number of members in a population per unit area is a ___Density-Dependent factor_______________________
Often biotic, and include: Predation Disease Competition Parasite
C. Population growth rate The __population growth rate (PGR) explains how fast a given population grows.
Natality: birthrate of a population in a given year
emigration: number of individuals moving away from a population
immagration number of individuals moving into a population
Exponential growth model:
Occurs when growth rate is proportional to population size
All populations grow exponentially until they encounter a limiting factor
lag time exponential growth
Logistic growth model: Occurs when a populations growth _slows____________ or __stops___________ following exponential growth
A population stops increasing when the __number of births__________ __ ________ number of deaths, or when ______emmigration________ ____immagration______________
carrying capacity
lag phase S-curve
Carrying capacity ___carrying____________ __capacity_______________ is the maximum number of individuals in a species that an environment can support