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Margarette Claire L.

Azaa

Ms. Edith

BSBA-HR1A

10/15/2014
Population Growth and Regulation

Growth of the human population is one of the most significant ecological developments
in the earths history.

Early population growth was very slow.

Demography is the study of populations:


o involves the use of mathematical techniques to predict growth of populations
o involves intensive study of both laboratory and natural populations, with
emphasis on:

causes of population fluctuations

effects of crowding on birth and death rates

A population increases in proportion to its size, in a manner analogous to a savings


account earning interest on principal:
o at a 10% annual rate of increase:
o allowed to grow unchecked, a population growing at a constant rate would rapidly
climb toward infinity

Population growth can be described by both exponential and geometric growth equations.
o exponential growth: appropriate when young individuals are added to the
population continuously
o geometric growth: appropriate when young individuals are added to the
population at one particular time of the year or some other discrete interval

When birth and death rates vary by age, predicting future population growth requires
knowledge of age-specific survival and fecundity.
Age specific schedules of survival and fecundity enable us to project the populations size
and age structure into the future.

Stable Age Distribution

When a population grows with constant schedules of survival and fecundity, the
population eventually reaches a stable age distribution (each age class represents a
constant percentage of the total population):
Life tables summarize demographic information including; age, number alive,
survivorship, mortality rate, probability of survival, and fecundity.

Analyses of life table data permit determination of population growth rates and stable age
distributions.

Cohort life tables are based on data collected from a group of individuals born at the
same time and followed throughout their lives:

Static life tables consider survival of individuals of known age during a single time
interval:

The intrinsic rate of increase depends on how individuals perform in that populations
environment.

Individuals from the same population subjected to different conditions can establish the
reaction norm for intrinsic rate of increase across a range of conditions:
o these vary within and between species

Consequences of Crowding for Population Growth

Crowding:
o results in less food for individuals and their offspring
o aggravates social strife
o promotes the spread of disease
o attracts the attention of predators

These factors act to slow and eventually halt population growth.

The logistic equation describes a population that stabilizes at its carrying capacity.

A small population growing according to the logistic equation exhibits sigmoid growth.

Population size is regulated by density-dependent factors. Populations have potential


for explosive growth, but all are eventually regulated by scarcity of resources and other
density-dependent factors. Such factors restrict growth by decreasing birth and survival
rates.

Only density-dependent factors, whose effects vary with crowding, can bring a
population under control; such factors include:
o food supply and places to live
o effects of predators, parasites, and diseases

Both laboratory and field studies have shown how population regulation may be brought
about by density-dependent processes.

Nature of the Ecosystem

Ecosystem are composed of organisms interacting with each other and with their
environment such that energy is exchanged and system-level processes, such as the
cycling of elements, emerge.
o It includes living organisms, the dead organic matter produced by them, abiotic
environment within which organisms live and exchange elements.

Two components:
o Abiotic Components
Sunlight, Temperature, Precipitation, Water or Moisture, Soil or water
chemistry
o Biotic Components
Primary producers, Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores
o Abiotic components are such physical and chemical factors of an ecosystem light,
temperature, atmosphere gases, water, wind, soil.
Water an essential element to life
Air provides oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide to living species
Soil source of nutriment and support
Temperature shouldnt exceed certain extremes
Light provides energy to the ecosystem through photosynthesis
o Biotic Components are the living organisms in the ecosystems.
Autotrophs produce their own organic nutrients for themselves. They are
called the producers.
Heterotrophs, as consumers that are unable to produce, are looking for its
source of organic nutrients from elsewhere.
o In ecology, energy flow, also called the calorific flow, refers to the flow
of energy through a food chain. In an ecosystem, ecologists seek to quantify the
relative importance of different component species and feeding relationships.
o The global cycles of biologically active elements are an important part of basic
and advanced Earth Science, Ecology and Biogeochemistry courses. An
understanding of biogeochemical cycles and anthropogenic impacts on them is
also fundamental in studies of global climate change. Unfortunately, most
presentations of biogeochemical cycles occupy one of two extremes: they are
either presented so simply that they contain information on pathways only, or in
such detail that they defy comprehension and are useful only to specialists.
Further, most workers have specialized in facets of individual cycles, and broad
perspectives and an understanding of interactions between cycles is lacking.

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