Answer Key for Population Dynamics Activities:

Coral Reef:

Graph

100 6
90
5
80
70
4
60
%Cover

# COTS
50 3 COTS
40 algae
2
30 coral
20
1
10
0 0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Year

Questions:

2) Coral decreases as the number of Crown of Thorn sea stars increase.

3) The algae increases as COTS increase and coral decreases.

4) Open ended thought question…potential answers include:

Why did the sea star have a population spike?

Doesn’t it have natural predators?

Can anything keep it in balance and if so, what happened to the population abundance of its
predator?
Eastern Tropical Pacific:

Graph:

4000 4500

3500 4000

Tuna Caught ( hundreds of tons)

Dolphin abundance (thousands)

3500
3000
3000
2500
2500
2000 Dolphin
2000 Tuna
1500
1500
1000
1000

500 500

0 0
Year
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Questions:

1) As tuna fishing increased, more and more dolphins were being caught in nets and dolphin
abundance decreased as a result.
2) Bycatch.
3) Dolphin numbers do not appear to have recovered fully even though various measures have
been put in place to ensure that less dolphins are being killed in tuna nets. (Though many less
dolphins are caught today, dolphin populations in this area have not rebounded fully. Scientists
think that this may be related to the stress the dolphins experience when they are caught in
nets. Even though they no longer die in nets nearly as often, the stress of being encircled is
thought to potentially cause them to abort their babies if they are pregnant at the time which
could prevent populations from increasing as quickly.)
California Current:

Graphs:

140

120
Tons of fish caught

100

80

60 Sardines
40 Anchovies

20

Year

Sea Surface Temperature

18.5
18
Temperature in Celcius

17.5
17
16.5
16
15.5
15
14.5
1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980
Year

Questions:

2) Sardines prefer warm water while anchovies thrive in cooler waters.

3) No, sardine populations will be low in abundance during cooler years and should not
be fished as much in order to ensure that their populations are not reduced too far to recover.
Kelp Forest:

Graph:

10 350
9
300
8

Otter & Urchin Abundance

7 250
Kelp Density

6 200
Kelp Density
5
4 150 Urchins

3 Sea Otters
100
2
50
1
0 0

Questions:

2) As the otters declined, urchin abundance increased because they had been released from
predation. As a result, the prey of the urchins – the kelp – vastly decreased in density because
there were more urchins eating more kelp.

3)Humans can, and in fact have, protected sea otters so that they hopefully increase in
abundance and restore the balance in the system.