Post-Midterm: Lecture 1 Flashcards
population
a group of individuals from the same species that live in the same area at the same time e.g. human population of GTA
Population ecology
study of how and why the number of individuals in a population changes over time
-helps use predict changes in a pop’n size such we can design management strategies (endangered spp-increase their pop’n, undesirable spp-decrease their pop’n)
Immigration
when individuals enter a population by moving from another population
Emmigration
when individuals leave a population to join another population
demography
study of factors that determine the size and structure of populations through time
-(including emigration, immigration, how many indiv of each age are alive, etc.)
Generation
mean age at which parents produce offspring
-can calc. generation length from life table data
Life table
summarizes the probability that an individual will survive and reproduce in any given year over its entire lifetime
survivorship
proportion of indiv. remaining alive from one age class to the next
survivorship curve
plot of the logarithm of the number of survivors vs. age
-to recognize general patterns in survivorship, and compare among pop’ns or spps
fecundity
number of offspring produced by each female in the population
age-specific fecundity
the avg. number of offspring produced by a female in a given age class (a group of individuals of a specific age)
-human females: age-specific fecundity is zero after menopause
Fitness trade-off
- when you get more of one trait (resource), you sacrifice some of the other trait (resource)
- occurs because every indiv. has a restricted amount of time and energy at its disposal (its resources are limited)
life history
-an organism’s life history consists of how the organism allocates its resources to growth, reproduction, and activities related to survival
