Unit-II: Population, Community and Niches

2.1: Population Ecology, Survivorship Curves and Life

Tables; Ecotypes and Ecads.

“We all worry about the population explosion, but we don’t worry about it at the right time”

Dr. Shah Rafiq

 The term population has its origin in the Latin word populus, meaning people.
 In ecology, a population may be defined as a group of organisms of the same
species occupying a particular space.
 The ultimate constituents of the population are individual organisms that can
potentially interbreed.
 The populations may be subdivided into demes or local populations, which are
groups of interbreeding organisms, the smallest collective unit of a plant or animal
population.
 Individuals in demes, thus, share a common gene pool.
 The boundaries of a population both in space and in time are vague and in practice
are usually fixed arbitrarily by the investigator.
 Some ecologists recognized following two types of populations :
 1. Monospecific population is the population of individuals of only one species;
 2. Mixed or polyspecific population is the population of individuals of more than
one species.
 Often ecologists use the term community for polyspecific population.
 The term "population" is interpreted differently in various sciences:
 In human demography a population is a set of humans in a given area.
 In genetics a population is a group of interbreeding individuals of the same
species, which is isolated from other groups.
 In population ecology a population is a group of individuals of the same species
inhabiting the same area.
 Populations can be defined at various spatial scales.
 Local populations can occupy very small habitat patches like a puddle.
 A set of local populations connected by dispersing individuals is called a
metapopulation.
 Populations can be considered at a scale of regions, islands, continents or seas.
 Even the entire species can be viewed as a population.
 Population biology is the study of population characteristics and the factors that
affect the size and distribution of it.
 The characteristics which are studied include the population density, the
demographics (the birth and death rates, sex ratio and age distribution), the
population genetics, migratory patterns, the life history traits and the group
dynamics (the interactions within and between populations).
 Population ecology is the study of how these populations interact with the
environment.
 When populations are studied from a ecological point of view, this forms a
population ecology or democology.
 In other words, population ecology is the study of individuals of the same species
where the processes such as aggregation, interdependence between individuals,
etc., and the various factors governing such processes are emphasized or
Population ecology is the study of how these populations interact with the
environment.
 Population ecology is the branch of ecology that studies the structure and
dynamics of populations.
The ecological study of populations include the following three main aspects :
1. Population characteristics;
2. Population dynamics;
3. Regulation of population.
 Population
Characteristics
 The population has the following characteristics :

 A. Population Size and Density

 Total size of population is generally expressed as number of individuals in a population.
The population size (N) at any given place is determined by the processes of birth (B),
death (D), new arrivals from outside or immigration (I) and going out or emigration (E).
Therefore, change in population size between an interval of time Nt + 1 is Nt (initial
stage) + B – D + I – E.
 Population density is defined as numbers of individuals per unit area or per unit volume
of environment. Larger organisms as trees may be expressed as 600 trees per hectare,
whereas smaller ones such as phytoplanktons (as algae) as 2 million cells per cubic metre
of water. In terms of weight it may be 100 kilograms of fish per hectare of water surface.
Density may be numerical density (number of individuals per unit area or volume) or
biomass density (biomass per unit area or volume).
 Population density is also measured as abundance or absolute number of population.
Crude density is the density (number or biomass) per unit total space. Ecological density
(also called specific or economic density) is the density (number or biomass) per unit of
habitat space, i.e., available area or volume that can actually be colonised by the
population.
Patterns of Population Dispersion (or Spatial Distribution)
Dispersion is the spatial pattern of individuals in a population relative
to one another.
A. Regular dispersion:
Here the individuals are more or less spaced at equal distances from
one another. This is very rare in nature but is common in managed
systems. Animals with territorial behaviour tend toward this
dispersion.
B. Random dispersion:
Here the position of one individual is unrelated to the positions of its
neighbours. This is also relatively rare in nature.
C. Clumped dispersion:
Most populations express this dispersion to some extent with
individuals aggregated into patches interspaced with no or few
individuals. Such aggregations may result from social aggregations,
such as family groups or may be due to certain patches of the
environment being more favourable for the population concerned.
 Age Structure
 In most types of populations, individuals are of different age.
 The proportion of individuals in each age group is called age structure or age distribution
of the population.
 Age distribution of the population influences natality (birth rate) and mortality (death rate).
 Reproductive ability is determined by age of the females and, hence, natality denotes the
numerical representation of young ones produced in unit time by the same age group.
 Similarly chances of death are more towards the earlier and later periods of life span and so
mortality is under the control of age.
 Therefore, the ratio of the various age groups in a population determines the current
reproductive status of the population and helps in anticipating its future.
 From an ecological point of view there are three major functional or ecological ages (age
groups) in any population.
 These are (i) pre-reproductive ( or juvenile or dependent phase), (ii) reproductive (or adult
phase) and (iii) post-reproductive (or old age).
Age pyramids:
A model representing geometrically the proportion of different age groups in the population of any
organism is called age pyramid (or age sex pyramid).
An age pyramid is a vertical bar graph in which the number or proportion of individuals in various
age ranges at any given time is shown from youngest at the bottom of the graph to oldest at the top.
According to Bodenheimer (1938), there are following three basic types of age-sex geometric figures.
1. Pyramid with broad base (or Triangular structure). It indicates a rapidly expanding
population with a high percentage of young individuals and only few old individuals. Thus, in
rapidly growing young population, birth rate is high and population growth may be exponential as in
yeast, housefly, Paramecium, etc.
2. Bell-shaped polygon: It indicates a stationary population having an equal number of young and
middle-aged individuals. As the rate of growth becomes slow and stable, i.e., the pre-reproductive
and reproductive age groups become more or less equal in size, post-reproductive group remaining
as the smallest.
3. Urn-shaped structure: It indicates a low percentage of young individuals. It shows a
declining population. Such an urn-shaped figure is obtained when the birth rate is drastically
reduced, the pre-reproductive group dwindles in proportion to the other two age groups of the
population.
 Natality
 Population increases because of natality.
 Natality is a broader term covering the production of new individuals by birth, hatching,
germination, or fission.
 The natality rate may be expressed as the number of organisms born per female per unit
time.
 In human population, the natality rate is equivalent to the ‘birth-rate’.
1. Fertility is the physiological notion which indicates that an organism is capable of
breeding.
2. Fecundity is an ecological concept that is based on the numbers of offspring produced
during a period of time.
 Fecundity is of two types—potential fecundity and realized fecundity.
 Natality is of following two types :
1. Maximum natality: (Also called absolute, potential or physiological natality).
 It is theoretical maximum production of new individuals under ideal conditions which
simply means that there are no ecological limiting factors and that reproduction is limited
only by physiological factors.
 Hence, absolute natality is constant for a species population.
 This is also called fecundity rate.
2. Ecological natality (Also called realized natality or simply natality):
 It refers to population increase under an actual, existing specific condition.
 Thus, ecological natality takes into account all possible existing environmental conditions.
 This is also called fertility rate.
 Ecological natality varies with the size and composition of the population, and with
environmental conditions.
It is expressed as—
∆ Nn = production of new individuals
∆ Nn/ Dt = the absolute natality rate (B)
∆ Nn/NDt = the specific natality rate (b) (i.e., natality rate per unit of population)
where, N=the reproductive part (mature female) of the population or initial number of
organisms
or total population
n = new individuals in the population
t = time
∆ = delta : a change in value.
1. Clutch size or the number of young produced on each occasion;
2. the time between one reproductive event and the next, and
3. the age of first reproduction.
 Mortality
Mortality means the rate of death of individuals in the population.
It is a negative factor for population growth.
Like natality, mortality may be of following types :
1. Minimum Mortality
 It is also called specific or potential mortality.
 Minimum mortality represents the theoretical minimum loss under ideal or non-limiting
conditions.
 It may be constant for a population.
2. Ecological Mortality
 It is also called realised mortality.
 It is the actual loss of individuals under a given environmental condition.
 Ecological mortality is not constant for a population and varies with population and
environmental conditions, such as predation, disease and other ecological hazards.
 Like natality, mortality may be expressed as the number of individuals dying in a given
period (death per time), or as specific rate in terms of units of the total population or any
part there of . 8
 Vital Index and Survivorship Curves
 A birth-rate ratio (100 × births/death) is called vital index.
 For a population the surviving individuals are more significant for a population than the dead
ones, the death rate can be represented by survivorship curves or life tables, both of which
provide an estimate of organisms surviving at various ages.
(i) Survivorship Curves:
 The pattern of mortality with age is best illustrated by survivorship curves which plot the
numbers surviving to a particular age.
 There are following three types of survivorship curves which represent the different nature of
survivors in different types of populations :
(a) Highly convex curve:
 This type of curve (Curve A in figure on next slide) is the characteristic of the species in which
the mortality rate of the population is low until near the end of the life span.
 Thus, such species tend to live throughout their life span, with low mortality rate in young and
adult.
 Many species of large animals as deer, mountain sheep, man and small rotifers show such
curves.
 Among various large-sized perennial plants, generally the plant die after reaching reproductive
phase within a period of old age.
(B) Highly Concave Curve
 This type of curve (Curve C in figure on next slide) is the characteristic of such species
where mortality rate is high during the young stages.
 Some birds, blacktail deer, oysters, shell fish, oak trees, short-lived weedy annuals, etc.,
exhibit pattern III type curve.
(c) Diagonal Straight-Line Curve:
 This type of curve (pattern B2 in figure on next slide) indicates an age-specific constant
survivorship, i.e., a constant rate of mortality occurs at every age. Some animals such as
hydra, gull, American robin, etc., exhibit this type of curve.
 In fact, no population in the real world has a constant age-specific survival rate throughout
the whole life span.
 Thus, a slightly concave or sigmoid curve (B3 in figure) is characteristic of many birds, mice
and rabbits. In them, the mortality rate is high in the young but lower and almost constant
in the adult (1 year or older).
 In some holometabolous insects (i.e., insects with complete metamorphosis), such as
butterflies, the survival rate differs in successive life-history stages and the curve becomes
the stair-step type survivorship curve (B3 in figure), the initial, middle and final steep
segments represent the egg population and short lived adult stages and the two middle
flatter segments represent the larval and pupal stages which exhibit less mortality.
 Some earthworms also exhibit stair-step type
survivorship curve.
 Lastly, crowding (high density) in certain
populations such as black tail deer
population may influence the shape of
survivorship curve.
 The survivorship curve of human
population is highly convex.
 This has become possible because of
increased medical care, better hygiene,
improved nutrition, and so on.
 The average life span of an Indian male has
gone up from 30 years (before 1947) to 58
years now.
 But maximum longevity has not gone up
very much in any society.
 Biotic Potential
Each population has the inherent potential
 Life
Tables