Population Ecology

Question 1

scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environments

Answer 1

ecology

Question 2

prevailing weather conditions in an area

Answer 2

climate

Question 3

4 major abiotic components of climate

Answer 3

temperature, precipitation, sunlight, wind

Question 4

variations of light and temperature, increasing steadily towards the poles

Answer 4

seasonality

Question 5

major life zones that are characterized by distribution of organisms, precipitation, temperature, etc

Answer 5

biomes

Question 6

What are the regional effects of climate?

Answer 6

bodies of water and mountains, currents, and seasonality

Question 7

What determines a species’ distribution?

Answer 7

limited dispersal, abiotic factors, biotic factors

Question 8

number of individuals per unit area of volume

Answer 8

density

Question 9

pattern of spacing among individuals

Answer 9

dispersion

Question 10

study of how vital statistics of a population and how they change over time

Answer 10

demography

Question 11

individuals aggregate in patches

Answer 11

clumped

Question 12

individuals are evenly distributed

Answer 12

uniform

Question 13

position of each individual is independent of other individuals

Answer 13

random

Question 14

What is clumped dispersion influenced by?

Answer 14

resource availability and behavior

Question 15

What is uniform dispersion influenced by?

Answer 15

social interactions

Question 16

In what cases do random dispersion act in?

Answer 16

absence of strong attraction or repulsion

Question 17

How can individuals add to a population?

Answer 17

births and immigrants

Question 18

How can individuals be removed from a population?

Answer 18

deaths and emigrants

Question 19

group of individuals if the same age

Answer 19

cohort

Question 20

age-specific summary of the survival pattern of a population

Answer 20

life tables

Question 21

How do you find the per capita rate of increase?

Answer 21

birth - death

Question 22

When the per capita rate of increase is zero the population is _____.

Answer 22

not growing

Question 23

When the per capita rate of increase is greater than zero the population is _____.

Answer 23

increasing

Question 24

When the per capita rate of increase is less than zero the population is _____.

Answer 24

decreasing

Question 25

Where does the exponential population growth model occur?

Answer 25

when a population is increasing under idealized conditions

Question 26

the maximum population the environment can support

Answer 26

carrying capacity

Question 27

traits that affect an organism’s schedule of reproduction and survival

Answer 27

life history

Question 28

3 main variables of life histories

Answer 28

1.) age at first reproduction
2.) frequency of reproduction
3.) number of offspring produced

Question 29

selected for life history traits that maximize fitness at high population density

Answer 29

K-selected

Question 30

selected for life history traits that maximize reproduction at low density

Answer 30

r-selected

Question 31

In which type of life history strategies does lots of parenting with very few young occur?

Answer 31

K-selected

Question 32

In which type of life history strategies does no parenting with many young occur?

Answer 32

r-selected

Question 33

What is are some life history “trade-offs?”

Answer 33

number and size of offspring

Question 34

birth rates fall and death rates rise with increased population density

Answer 34

density-dependent populations

Question 35

What factors can affect density-dependent populations?

Answer 35

competition for resource
territoriality
disease
predation
hormone changes
toxic wastes
intrinsic factors

Question 36

group of populations linked by migration

Answer 36

metapopulations