Chapter 53 Vocabulary Flashcards
Density
Number of individuals (in a population) per unit area or volume: The number of oak trees per square kilometer in the Minnesota county or the number of Escherichia coli bacteria per milliliter it a test tube
Population
A group of individuals of a single species living in the same general area
Dispersion
The pattern of spacing among individuals within boundaries of the population
Mark-recapture method
A sampling technique used to estimate the size of animal populations by either marking or just locating animals using another method
Immigration
The influx of new individuals from other areas
Emigration
The movement of individuals out of the population and into other locations
Territoriality
The defense of a bounded physical space against encroachment by other individuals
Demography
The study of vital statistics of populations and how they change over time
Life tables
Age-specific summaries of the survival pattern of a population
Cohort
A group of individuals of the same age, from birth until all of the individuals are dead
Survivorship curve
A plot of the proportion of numbers in a cohort still alive at each age
Reproductive table (or fertility schedule)
Age-specific summary of the reproductive rates in a population, constructed by measuring reproductive output of a cohort from birth until death
Zero population growth (ZPG)
Occurs when the per capita birth and death rates are equal (r=0). Births and deaths still occur, just balanced
Exponential population growth (or geometric population growth)
Population whose members all have access to abundant food and are free to reproduce at their physiological capacity, per capita rate of increase may assume the maximum rate for the species, denoted as rmax
Carrying capacity (K)
The maximum population size that a particular environment can sustain, can vary over space and time with abundance of limiting resources