UNDERSTANDING POPULATIONS

Chapter 6
Section 1
 POPULATION UNDERSTANDING

In this section we will study how a population is affected and how they are changed.
 PROPERTIES OF POPULATIONS

• Population – group of organisms that belong to the same species and live in a particular place
at the same time.
• Ex: bass living in pond during the certain period of time constitute.
 PROPERTIES OF POPULATIONS

1. Population size
2. Population density
3. Dispersion
 POPULATION SIZE
• Population size the number of individuals in the population it contains.
• Size is fundamental and important population property, but it can be difficult to measure
directly because its constantly changes.
• There are two types of organism
1. Immobile organism
2. Mobile organism
• Immobile organisms (plants) are easy to count.
• If the population is small and composed of immobile organisms, it size’s can determined
simply by counting individuals.
• Mobile organisms (animals) spread too much so it is difficult to keep track of them.
• If the individuals are too abundant, too widespread its difficult to determine them.
It is too difficult to determine the number of flowers in a big field, Therefore…
You measure the whole field to calculate the area.
Then you count a small portion of that big field.
Then you use the number of plants in the small portion to calculate the number of plants in
the big field.
This method assumes that the individuals are evenly distributed throughout the field.
 POPULATION SIZE COUNTING IMMOBILE ORGANISMS

• In 1km2 we determine there to be 37 trees

• Therefore in 9km2 there is (37 x 9km2) 333 trees
1 km

1 km

This field is 3 km by 3 km. There are 3 km

many trees in it. To estimate the number of
the trees we will count the trees in the 1
km by 1 km area to the top right.

This field is 3 km by 3 km. There are

many trees in it. To estimate the number of
3 km
the trees we will count the trees in the 1
km by 1 km area to the top right.
P O P U L AT I O N D E N S I T Y

• Population density measures how crowded a population is.

• Population density is always expressed as the number of individuals per unit of area or
volume.
Ex: 30 people/square km.
• The density doesn’t tell you if the individuals are
distributed evenly or not.
DISPERSION

• Dispersion the spatial distribution of individuals within a population.

• There are three types of dispersion
1. Clumped
2. Even
3. random
1. Clumped
Clumped distribution individuals are clustered together.
• Clumped dispersion occur because food is clumped or because the organisms need to be
close to each other to survive.
• 2. Even
• Even, individuals are spread evenly
• Even dispersion occurs because of animals behavior or because of competition
for resources.
• 3. Random
• Random individual location is independent of each other.
• Random dispersion occurs because of natural factor’s such as seeds randomly distributed
by the wind.
• The dispersion of the population can appear different if you look at the population close
up or from far away.
POPULATION DYNAMICS
• All population are dynamic they change in size and composition over time.
• You can measure some properties to determine how the population can/will change, which
contain
1. Birth rate
2. mortality rate
3. Life expectancy

4. birth rate, the number of birth occurring in a period of time.

5. Mortality rate which is the number of deaths in a period of time.
6. Life expectancy how long on average an individual is expected to live.
 AGE STRUCTURE

• Age structure is the distribution of individuals among different ages in a population.

• Age structure are presented in graphs.
• In many species, including humans very old individuals don’t reproduce.
• Populations with high percent of young people increase in the future
PAT T E R N S O F M O RTA L I T Y

• The mortality rate data of different species conform to the three patterns of mortality that
are represented buy survivorship curves.
• Survivorship Curves show the likelihood of survival at different ages throughout the
organism’s lifetime.
• Survivorship Curves contain Three types
1. Type 1
2. Type 2
3. Type 3
TYPE 1

• in the first type the chance of dying is small until late in life when the mortality
increase rapidly, this type of mortality produces type 1 survivorship curve.
• Example In human and elephant
TYPE 2

• In the second type the chance of dying is the same throughout their lifetime, this
type of mortality produces type 2 or linear of survivorship curve.
• Example birds
TYPE 3

• In the third type the chance of dying in many organisms at an early age and a few
survive to very old ages, this type of mortality produces type 3 survivorship curve.
POPULATION REGULATION

• Two kinds of limiting factors which control population size have been identified.
1. Density independent factor
2. Density dependent factor
Density independent factor (reduce) population regardless of the population size.
Example Natural disasters (weather, floods, fires).
Density dependent factor include resource limitation.
Example shortages of food or nesting sites.
the number of individuals an ecosystem can support with a resource is called carrying capacity.
P O P U L AT I O N F L U C T U AT I O N

• Population size is always changing for different reasons.

• Sometimes we can easily determine what caused the change in population size.
• Sometimes it is not easy to determine what causes a change in population size.
Environmental change will affecting of changing population.
• Example deer
Some population fluctuations aren’t obviously connected to environmental fluctuation.
• Scientists determined that the population size of hares had a specific cycle.
• Then they determined that the population size of lynx, which prey on hares,
also has a similar specific cycle.
 PERILS OF SMALL POPULATIONS
• Increasing human population has caused decreasing population in other species.
Example Siberian Tiger.
• Environmental disturbance like (storm, fire, floods).
• Inbreeding(mating with relative)occurs, which is bad because offspring are more susceptible to
disease and have a shorter-life span.
HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH

Chapter 6
Section 2
 HISTORY OF HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH
• In this section you will study the history of human population growth.
• The human population from 500,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago grew very slowly.
• Humans lived in small nomadic groups and obtained food by hunted animals and
gathered roots, nuts, fruits this way of life is called Hunter-gatherer-lifestyle.
• Homo sapiens: - scientific name of Human
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE
• 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, humans learned how to domesticate animals (train animals) and
cultivate certain plants for food, this was called the agricultural revolution.
• This increased food supply so human population growth rate increased.
• About 2000 years ago, the population had increased to between 170 million and 330
million.
 THE POPULATION EXPLOSION
• Human population continued to grow through the middle ages, despite some short-term
reversal.
• In 1347-1352 because of bubonic plague 25 percent of population in Europe had die.
• After that in 1650 human population growth began to accelerate because of a sharp
decline in death rate that included
• There are many reasons for the decline in death rates including,
• Better sanitation and hygiene, control of disease, and improved of economic condition.
• Mortality rates again increased in the decades immediately following war II because of
improvements in health and hygiene in the world’s poor countries.
• Human population grew from 2 billion to 5 billion from 1960 to 1987
POPULATION GROWTH TODAY
• Developed countries – a modern, are generally better educated and healthier and live
longer than people in developing countries. The growth rate is low.
• Developing countries – the society is less modern and less educated, generally poorer
than they are in developed countries and their population are growing much faster. The
growth rate is high.