Chapter 55

Question 1

r-strategist

Answer 1

species whose life history strategy allows for a high intrinsic rate of population increase

Question 2

life table

Answer 2

for group of equal-ages individuals, table showing the proportion still alive at different times in the future and the number of offspring they produce during each time interval

Question 3

corridor

Answer 3

connection between habitat patches through which organisms can disperse; plays a critical role in maintaining subpopulations

Question 4

logistic growth

Answer 4

growth that slows steadily as entity approaches max. size; especially size of organism or # of organisms in population

Question 5

rescue effect

Answer 5

process by which individuals moving between subpopulations of metapopulation may prevent declining subpopulations from becoming extinct

Question 6

dispersion

Answer 6

dist’n of individuals in space w/in a population

Question 7

demography

Answer 7

study of population structure and of the processes by which it changes

Question 8

population dynamics

Answer 8

patterns and processes of change in populations

Question 9

intrinsic rate of increase (r)

Answer 9

rate t which population can grow when its density is low and environmental conditions are highly favorable

Question 10

population

Answer 10

group of organisms coexisting at same time and in same place; capable of interbreeding with one another

Question 11

habitat patch

Answer 11

area of a particular habitat surrounded by other habitat types that may be less suitable for that organism

Question 12

fecundity

Answer 12

avg. # of offspring produced by each female

Question 13

age structure

Answer 13

dist’n of individuals in population across all age groups

Question 14

life history strategy

Answer 14

way in which organism partitions its time and energy among growth, maintenance, & reproduction

Question 15

carrying capacity

Answer 15

of individuals in a population that the resources of its environment can support

Question 16

K-strategist

Answer 16

species whose life history strategy allows it to persist at or near the carrying capacity of its environment

Question 17

exponential growth

Answer 17

growth which is geometric fcn of size of the gowing entity: the larger the entity, the faster it grows (esp. in # of organisms in a population)

Question 18

semelparous

Answer 18

reproducing only once in a lifetime

Question 19

metapopulation

Answer 19

population divided into subpopulations, among which there are occasional exchanges of individuals

Question 20

mark-recapture method

Answer 20

method of estimating population sizes of mobile organisms by capturing, marking, & releasing a sample of individuals, then capturing another sample at a later time

Question 21

cohort

Answer 21

group of similar-aged organisms

Question 22

density-independent

Answer 22

pertaining to a factor w/ an effect on population size that acts independently of population density

Question 23

population density

Answer 23

of individuals of a population per unit area or volume

Question 24

iteroparous

Answer 24

reproducing multiple times in a lifetime

Question 25

density-dependent

Answer 25

pertaining to a factor w/ an effect on population size that increases in proportion to population density

Question 26

survivorship

Answer 26

proportion of individuals in a cohort that are alive at age ‘x’ in life tables. a graph of this data is a survivorship curve