Ecology Flashcards
Ecology
the study of relationships between living organisms, and their physical environment.
*highly interdisciplinary- genetics, evolutionary bio, physics, and chem, geography, ethnology, demography, sociology
Individuals
metabolism, behavior, life-history
Populations
con specifics living in the same habitat
Meta populations
populations connected by migration/dispersal
Communities
interacting populations of different species
Ecosystems
including their physical and chemical characteristics
Complex
describing something that is dynamic; composed of many interacting agents; network structure; nonlinear interactions
Adaptive
respond to change; adapt to new conditions; evolve
First Law of Ecology
If left unchecked, populations will grow/ decay very fast (aka exponential growth or decay)
Limiting factors of Population Growth (as defined by Malthus)
Food resources, war, famine, abortion, economic factors, and delayed marriage
Carrying capacity
the maximum population size an environment can sustain indefinitely
Intra-specific competition
a special case of density-dependent growth: the per-capita growth rate depends on the density of the population
Second Law of Ecology
No population is left unchecked for a long time (but it could be long enough to cause great damage)
Bistable dynamic system
a dynamical system that has two stable equilibrium states
Allee effect
The idea that populations could grow faster when in groups than in isolation
Formula: rate of the populations’ change over the change in time = r(N)(N/A-1)(1-N/K)
Possible processes leading to Allee effect:
- finding a mate can be hard when the population is at low abundance.
- social cooperation could help escaping predators.
- social hunting could be beneficial.
- inbreeding depression.
- demographic stochasticity
Critical population size:
A
Catastrophic bifurcation (critical transition)
small changes in conditions trigger extreme, discontinuous
responses that might be difficult to reverse
Critcal slowing down
When N is close to A, making (N/A-1) = ~0 [the rate of change in the population slows]. Or, A is increasing, the perturbations will slow down.
Summary of Week 7 notes
• Dynamical systems can have different attractors.
• Stochastic fluctuations can move the system between states.
• Allee effect is sufficient to create bi-stable systems.
• Bistable systems can be re-created in the laboratory, and the approaching of a critical transition can be
measured.
• In natural systems, we observe similar dynamics.
• This is especially worrisome in the case of fisheries—many cases of collapse in the past 20 years.
• We need more holistic approaches for determining what can be harvested.
Summary of Week 6 notes:
• Human population has grown rapidly (1800, 1B; 1927, 2B; 1960, 3B; 1974, 4B; 1987, 5B; 1999, 6B;
2011, 7B).
• Humans have strong impact on the environment.
• Natural populations will initially growth very rapidly if unchecked (geometric, exponential).
• However, soon they will reach an asymptote (logistic).
• Humans were able to keep moving the asymptote by changing the environment and through technological
developments.
• Human populations follow a demographic transition, going from high mortality and high natality, to
low mortality and low natality.
• The stage in which mortality is low and birth rates are still high yields a rapid rise in population
numbers.
Hysteresis
Multiple states may persist under equal environmental condition
Global equilibrium
only one point of equilibrium
Demographic stochasticity
math ratios that lead to extinction
Continuous population growth models are more appropriate for human populations. WHY?
Humans give birth with roughly equal probability on all days of any given year. Discrere population growth models are appropriate for populaions with varied probabilities of birth at certain times.
Are carrying capacity and growth rate always constant?
NO!! They can be changed as seen with the human population. This means that the human population cannot be fitted to a logistic model.
On a dX(t)/dt v. X(t), what does a point @ y=0 represent?
An equilibrium population density predicted by the model
Locally, asymptotically stable means?
The population will eventually (not necessarily quickly) return to the equilibrium after a small perturbation
What’s the difference b/t exponential and logistic growth?
Per capita growth rate of the population (1/X dX/dt) is equal to the intrinsic growth rate (r) at all population sizes fr exponential growth but not for logistic growth.
For a population growing according to a static life table, then…
The number in each age class will increase and the proportion in each age class will eventually stabilize
dX(t)/dt = rX(t) is the model for…
Continuous growth of a population
Long period and higher amplitudes in a population versus time graph is caused by…
with a long time lag…the growth rate depends on the population size a long time in the past, so that it continues to undershoot and overshoot K