Life Tables, Survivorship Curves & Age-Sex Structure (Article) - Khan Academy PDF

Life tables, survivorship curves & age-sex structure (article) | Khan Academy 29/08/2020, 9(41 AM
Science Biology Science · Biology library · Ecology

library Ecology Intro to · Intro to popula!on ecology
popula!on ecology
Intro to popula!on ecology Life tables, survivorship,
& age-sex structure
Popula!on size, density, &
dispersal Tools ecologists use to describe the present state of a
popula!on and predict its future growth.
Life tables, survivorship, &

age-sex structure Google Classroom Facebook
Twi"er Email
Life history strategies and
fecundity
Key points
Life history strategies
To predict if a popula!on will grow or shrink,
Prac!ce: Popula!on ecologists need to know birth and death rates
ecology for organisms at different ages as well as the
current age and sex makeup of the popula!on.
Next lesson
Popula!on growth & regul…
Life tables summarize birth and death rates
for organisms at different stages of their lives.
Survivorship curves are graphs that show

what frac!on of a popula!on survives from
one age to the next.
An age-sex pyramid is a "snapshot" of a

popula!on in !me showing how its members
are distributed among age and sex categories.
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/ecology/population-ecology/a/life-tables-survivorship-age-sex-structure Page 1 of 20
Introduc!on
Governments around the world keep records of
human birth and death rates—not just for the
overall popula!on of a country but also for
specific groups within it, broken down by age and
sex. O$en, this data is arranged in summary tables
called life tables. Enterprising insurance companies
make good use of these life tables, taking the
probability of death at a given age and using it to
calculate insurance rates that, sta!s!cally,
guarantee a !dy profit.
Ecologists o$en collect similar informa!on for the

species they study, but they don't do it to
maximize profits! They do it to gain knowledge
and, o$en, to help protect species. Take, for
example, ecologists concerned about the
endangered red panda. They might follow a group
of red pandas from birth to death. Each year, they
would record how many pandas had survived and
how many cubs had been born. From this data,
they could be"er understand the life history, or
typical survival and reproduc!on pa"ern, of their
red panda group.
What's the use of a life history? In some cases,

ecologists are just plain curious about how
organisms live, reproduce, and die. But there is
also a prac!cal reason to collect life history data.

By combining birth and death rates with a
"snapshot" of the current popula!on—how many
old and young organisms there are and whether
they are male or female—ecologists can predict
how a popula!on is likely to grow or shrink in the
future. This is par!cularly important in the case of
an endangered species, like the red pandas in our
example.
Life tables
A life table records ma"ers of life and death for a
popula!on—literally! It summarizes the likelihood
that organisms in a popula!on will live, die, and/or
reproduce at different stages of their lives.
Let's start simply by taking a look at a basic life

table that just shows survival—rather than survival
and reproduc!on. Specifically, we'll focus on the
animal below: the Dall mountain sheep, a wild
sheep of northwestern North America.
Image credit: Dall sheep by David McMaster, CC BY-SA 3.0
For full disclosure, this data was collected in a

pre"y weird way. An ecologist named Olaus Murie
hiked around Mount McKinley Na!onal Park in
Alaska for several years in the 1930s and 1940s.
Every !me he came across the skull of a dead Dall
mountain sheep, he used the size of its horns to
es!mate how old it must have been when it died1 .
From the ages of the 608 skulls he discovered, he
es!mated survival and death rates for the sheep
across their lifespans.
[Why not just follow individual sheep?]
Below, we have a table based on Murie's skull

collec!on data. To make it easier to read, the table
is standardized to a popula!on of 1000 sheep. As
we walk through the table, we can picture what
will happen, on average, to those 1000 sheep—

specifically, how many will survive or die in each
age bracket.
Let's walk together through the first row of the

table. Here, we see that 1000 sheep are born,
reach an age of zero. Of those sheep, 54 will die
before they reach 0.5 years of age. That makes for
a death, or mortality, rate of 54/1000, or 0.054,
which is recorded in the far-right column.
Age Number Number Age-specific

interval surviving dying in mortality rate
in at age —frac!on of
years beginning interval individuals
of age out of alive at
interval 1000 beginning of
out of born interval that
1000 die during the
born interval
0–0.5 1000 54 0.054
0.5–1 946 145 0.1533
1–2 801 12 0.015
2–3 789 13 0.0165
3–4 776 12 0.0155
4–5 764 30 0.0393
5–6 734 46 0.0627
6–7 688 48 0.0698
7–8 640 69 0.1078
8–9 571 132 0.2312
9–10 439 187 0.426
10–11 252 156 0.619
11–12 96 90 0.9375
12–13 6 3 0.5
13–14 3 3 1
Table adapted from Edward S. Deevey2 .
By looking at the life table, we can see when the

sheep have the greatest risk of death. One high-
risk period is between 0.5 and 1 years; this
reflects that very young sheep are easy prey for
predators and may die of exposure. The other
period where the death rate is high is late in life,
star!ng around age eight. Here, the sheep are
dying of old age.
[Why don't sheep die more between zero and 0.5
years?]
This is a rela!vely bare-bones life table; it only

shows survival rates, not reproduc!on rates. Many
life tables show both survival and reproduc!on. If
we added reproduc!on to this table, we would
have another column lis!ng the average number
of lambs produced per sheep in each age interval.

[Did you realize you just made a horrible pun?]
Survivorship curves
For me, a life table isn't the easiest thing to read.
In fact, I'd rather see all that survival data as a
graph—that is, as a survivorship curve.
A survivorship curve shows what frac!on of a

star!ng group is s!ll alive at each successive age.
For example, the survivorship curve for Dall
mountain sheep is shown below:
The graph makes it nice and clear that there's a

small dip in sheep survival early on, but most of
the sheep die rela!vely late in life.
Different species have differently shaped

survivorship curves. In general, we can divide
survivorship curves into three types based on their
shapes:
Image credit: Popula!on demography: Figure 5 by OpenStax College,

Biology, CC BY 4.0
Type I. Humans and most primates have a

Type I survivorship curve. In a Type I curve,
organisms tend not to die when they are
young or middle-aged but, instead, die when
they become elderly. Species with Type I
curves usually have small numbers of offspring
and provide lots of parental care to make sure
those offspring survive.
Type II. Many bird species have a Type II

survivorship curve. In a Type II curve,
organisms die more or less equally at each age
interval. Organisms with this type of
survivorship curve may also have rela!vely
few offspring and provide significant parental
care.
Type III. Trees, marine invertebrates, and most

fish have a Type III survivorship curve. In a
Type III curve, very few organisms survive

their younger years. However, the lucky ones
that make it through youth are likely to have
pre"y long lives a$er that. Species with this
type of curve usually have lots of offspring at
once—such as a tree releasing thousands of
seeds—but don't provide much care for the
offspring.
Age-sex structure
How can we use the birth and death rates from a
life table to predict if a popula!on will grow or
shrink? To do this effec!vely, we need a
"snapshot" of the popula!on in its present state.
For instance, suppose we have two popula!ons of

bears: one made up mostly of young,
reproduc!ve-aged female bears and one made up
mostly of male bears past their reproduc!ve years.
Even if these popula!ons are the same size and
share a life table—have the same reproduc!on and
survival rates at a given age—they are likely to
follow different paths.
The first popula!on is likely to grow because it

has many bears that are in prime posi!on to
produce baby bears, cubs.
The second popula!on is likely to shrink

because it has many bears that are close to
death and can no longer reproduce.
So, who's currently in a popula!on makes a big

difference when we are thinking about future
popula!on growth! Informa!on about the age-sex
structure of a popula!on is o$en shown as a
popula!on pyramid. The x-axis shows the percent
of the popula!on in each category, with males to
the le$ and females to the right. The y-axis shows
age groups from birth to old age.
Image credit: Popula!on pyramid by CK-12 Founda!on, CC BY-NC 3.0
It's common to see popula!on pyramids used to

represent human popula!ons. In fact, there are
specific shapes of pyramids that tend to be
associated with growing, stable, and shrinking
human popula!ons, as shown below.
Image credit: Human popula!on growth: Figure 3 by OpenStax College,

Biology, CC BY 4.0
Countries with rapid popula!on growth have a

sharp pyramid shape in their age structure
diagrams. That is, they have a large frac!on of
younger people, many of whom are of
reproduc!ve age or will be soon. This pa"ern
o$en shows up for countries that are
economically less developed, where lifespan is
limited by access to medical care and other
resources.
Areas with slow growth, including more

economically developed countries like the
United States, s!ll have age-sex structures
with a pyramid shape. However, the pyramid
is not as sharp, meaning that there are fewer
young and reproduc!ve-aged people and
more old people rela!ve to rapidly growing
countries.
Other developed countries, such as Italy, have

zero popula!on growth. The age structure of
these popula!ons has a dome or silo shape,
with an even greater percentage of middle-
aged and old people than in the slow-growing

example.
Finally, some developed countries actually

have shrinking popula!ons. This is the case for
Japan3 . The popula!on pyramid for these
countries typically pinches inward towards its
base, reflec!ng that young people are a small
frac!on of the popula!on.
The basic principles of these human examples

hold true for many popula!ons in nature. Large
frac!ons of young and reproduc!ve individuals
mean a popula!on is likely to grow. Large
frac!ons of individuals past reproduc!ve age
mean a popula!on is likely to shrink.
[A"ribu!on and references]
Sort by: Top Voted
Ques!ons Tips & Thanks
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Deepthi Chandra 4 years ago

more
Why is Japan's popula!on shrinking? Isn't

it a developed country with good medical
care?
4 (15
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comments
4 years
m…
Alan Hunt ago
Those things are true, but Japan

has an extremely high popula!on
density, due to being confined to
the na!on's islands. High
popula!on density puts a
nega!ve pressure on growth
because there is less space and
fewer resources to accommodate
higher numbers of popula!on.
(34
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Kar!keya Sharma 4 years ago

more
Someone please explain it to me, in the

Dalla mountain sheep survivorship curve,
the x-axis represents no. of individuals.
Fair enough.
But, in the second survivorship curve, the
x- axis says "percentage of maximinum life
expectancy". What does it mean, and how
does it help us?
Thanks.
(1
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4 years
m…
Laura Turdean ago
That's not the Dalla mountain

sheep curve. It's a Species
survivorship curve with different
species such as: human, bird and
tree. It gives us a big picture
about how many individuals
survive over !me. For instance,
for trees: many seeds are
dispersed, not many find good
condi!ons to sprout, and even
less may grow. However, one
they reach adulthood, it is likely
that they con!nue living. They
have a con!nuous curve at the
"life expectancy" axis. It is the
reverse case for humans. Babies
are likely to survive their first
years and they carry on living.
However, a$er adulthood, their
life expectancy is declining. Birds
are the average between these
two extremes. This informa!on
is very relevant. Let's suppose
you intend to make a
conserva!on programme for a
rare tree species. You would
have to protect (from logging)
the mature and old trees and, in
the mean!me, you should make
a nursery to grow young ones
and plant them constantly. In this
was you could ensure that the
species would not die out.
(6
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Draven Zindle 4 years ago

more
Im s!ll confused as to how the fourth age

structure pyramid shows a shrinking
popula!on growth
1 (1
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comment
cynder99 4 years ago

more
The popula!on pyramid is

smaller at its base, meaning that
there are fewer young
individuals: fewer people who
are able to reproduce. Also,
there's a spike around the
middle-aged sec!on - people
who are about to re!re and can't
reproduce - which will lead to a
shrinking popula!on, because
there are less people able to
reproduce.
tl;dr: There are fewer children

than adults.
(5
Comment votes)
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Michael Granados 2 years ago

more
Can a popula!on pyramid be used for

animals?
(2
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Abhiram a year ago

more
Yes, yes they can. Popula!on

pyramids can be used for any
organisms. They could be used
for bacteria if you wanted.
(2
Comment votes)
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Ashlyn Tucker 2 years ago

more
why are the developing countries

shrinking while the 3rd world countries
popula!ons are growing shouldn't it be
the other way around?
1 (2
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comment
10
10
…
months
Ivana - Science trainee ago
Because they have be"er-

controlled fecundity and fer!lity.
Many countries such as China

even have restric!ons to shrink
their popula!on on purpose
because they are overcrowded.
As for underdeveloped countries,

they are not controlled. The
poorer the country the less
control and different mindset.
(1
Comment vote)
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jsaavedra4 14 days ago

more
why are they so different ?

(1
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! a year ago
Rachna158!
more
In popula!on growth, wouldn't disease

also play a key role in an animal surviving?
(1
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a year
m…
Maria Portela ago
Diseases are one possible death

factor, but not the only one.
Therefore death rates are a more
accurate measure to describe
popula!on growth.
Try to think of it through a
money analogy: the total amount
of money you have in your wallet
is the popula!on, your income is
the birth rate and your expenses
represent the death rate. If you
wanted to know how much
money you have, you wouldn't
care about how you had spent it,
just about how much you spent.
It is the same with popula!on
growth: you care about how
many individuals died, not about
how they died.
1 (1
vote)
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comment
Kar!keya Sharma 4 years ago

more
Insects will have which type of

survivorship curve?
1 (1
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comment
3
years …
Craig Meriwether ago
Craig Meriwether
Type III. Spiders for example, lay

thousands of eggs that mature
on their own without parental
nurturing.
(3
Comment votes)
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Popula!on size, density, & dispersal

Life history strategies and fecundity
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Life tables, survivorship curves & age-sex structure (article) | Khan Academy 29/08/2020, 9(41 AM

Science Biology Science · Biology library · Ecology

Life tables, survivorship, &

Survivorship curves are graphs that show

An age-sex pyramid is a "snapshot" of a

Ecologists o$en collect similar informa!on for the

What's the use of a life history? In some cases,

also a prac!cal reason to collect life history data.

Let's start simply by taking a look at a basic life

Image credit: Dall sheep by David McMaster, CC BY-SA 3.0

For full disclosure, this data was collected in a

Below, we have a table based on Murie's skull

will happen, on average, to those 1000 sheep—

Let's walk together through the first row of the

Age Number Number Age-specific

0.5–1 946 145 0.1533

1–2 801 12 0.015

2–3 789 13 0.0165

3–4 776 12 0.0155

4–5 764 30 0.0393

5–6 734 46 0.0627

6–7 688 48 0.0698

7–8 640 69 0.1078

8–9 571 132 0.2312

9–10 439 187 0.426

10–11 252 156 0.619

Table adapted from Edward S. Deevey2 .

By looking at the life table, we can see when the

This is a rela!vely bare-bones life table; it only

of lambs produced per sheep in each age interval.

A survivorship curve shows what frac!on of a

The graph makes it nice and clear that there's a

Diﬀerent species have diﬀerently shaped

Image credit: Popula!on demography: Figure 5 by OpenStax College,

Type I. Humans and most primates have a

Type II. Many bird species have a Type II

Type III. Trees, marine invertebrates, and most

Type III curve, very few organisms survive

For instance, suppose we have two popula!ons of

The first popula!on is likely to grow because it

The second popula!on is likely to shrink

So, who's currently in a popula!on makes a big

Image credit: Popula!on pyramid by CK-12 Founda!on, CC BY-NC 3.0

It's common to see popula!on pyramids used to

Image credit: Human popula!on growth: Figure 3 by OpenStax College,

Countries with rapid popula!on growth have a

Areas with slow growth, including more

Other developed countries, such as Italy, have

aged and old people than in the slow-growing

Finally, some developed countries actually

The basic principles of these human examples

[A"ribu!on and references]

Sort by: Top Voted

Ques!ons Tips & Thanks

Want to join the conversa!on?

Deepthi Chandra 4 years ago

Why is Japan's popula!on shrinking? Isn't

Those things are true, but Japan

See 5 more replies

Kar!keya Sharma 4 years ago

Someone please explain it to me, in the

Reply • Comment vote)

That's not the Dalla mountain