Population Ecology

Ecology is studied at different scales, and population growth is part of the “population ecology” scale.

Graph Interpretation

Population Growth

There are two main models used to describe how population size changes over time: exponential growth and logistic growth. Click on the information hotspots (labeled as “i”) in the figure below to learn more.

Although several populations in nature follow logistic and exponential growth patterns, population growth can be much more complicated. For instance, many insects undergo brief exponential growth, followed by periods of mass death (or drop in population).

Example

Population growth may not look like either exponential or logistic growth models. For instance, the horse population on Assateague Island in Maryland (pictured below) experienced increase and stabilization—similar to logistic growth—but then underwent a stable decline.

To complicate the interpretation of this graph further, the stabilization and decline were due to human management of the population. Studies showed that the environment would not sustain such a large population over time, and many of the plant-species’ population growth would drop dramatically—eventually causing a crash in the horse’s population size. Managers injected female horses with a vaccine that caused immune cells to attack sperm cells.

Check out the following article to learn more!

National Park Service. (n.d.). Resource management brief – horses. Retrieved June 24, 2020 from https://www.nps.gov/asis/learn/nature/resource-management-brief-horses.htm

Population Density

Although examining how the size of the population changes over time is informative, it neglects to take into account how much space the population is occupying. How dense a population is can impact survival and be influenced by a number of factors.

Density

You may have heard of density in a chemistry or physics class before. In those cases, density typically refers to how dense an object is (as seen in the figure below). This is the amount of matter in a given volume (calculated by mass/volume).

Population density is similar to object density, except it refers to the number of individuals (or organisms) instead of the number of particles.

Population Growth Factors

Factors that influence population size, such as a drought or drop in prey, are categorized into one of two types:

Based on those definitions, identify each factor as density-dependent or independent.

Population Growth and Conservation

Population growth is used to inform conservation—whether it be to determine if conservation efforts are needed (i.e., a population is dropping in size) or testing to see if a conservation strategy is working.

Human Population

The previous video explored why our population is increasing in size, but when did our population start increasing and what does it look like now? The following video does an excellent job of showing how our rate of increase has changed over time. Note: It’s going to seem like not a lot is going for a while, but keep watching!

Reference

National Park Service. (n.d.). Resource management brief – horses. Retrieved June 24, 2020 from https://www.nps.gov/asis/learn/nature/resource-management-brief-horses.htm