Scribd
Upload
12 views11 pages

Organisms Nand Populations

Uploaded by

jirenn438
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
12 views11 pages

Organisms Nand Populations

Uploaded by

jirenn438
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 11

Ecology

It is a branch of science which deals with the


interactions among organisms and between the
organisms and its physical (abiotic) environment.

Ecology is basically concerned with four levels of


Biological organisation:
1. Organisms
2. Populations
3. Communities
4. Biomes
•Populations: Individuals of any species live in groups in
well-defined geographical area, share or compete for similar
resources, potentially interbreed and constitute a
population.
•Population Attributes: A population has certain attributes
that an individual organism does not such as an individual
may have births and deaths, but a population has birth rates
and death rates.
➢ The birth and death rates are referred as per capita births
or deaths respectively, which is increase and decrease with
respect to members of the population.
➢ Sex ratio is another attributes of population. An individual
may be male or female but population has sex ratio.
➢A population at given time composed of different individual
of different ages. If the age distribution is plotted for the
population, the resulting structure is called age pyramids. The
shape of pyramids reflects the shape of growth status of
population. Which may be
➢(i) Expanding (ii) Stable (iii) Declining
• Population size or population density (N) is measured in
terms of number but it may sometime not appropriate.
• Population Growth: The size of population is not static. It
keeps changing with time, depending upon food availability,
predation pressure and adverse weather. The main factors
that determine the population growth are-
1. Natality (number of birth during a given period in the
population)

2. Mortality ( number of death during a given period in the


population)
3. Immigration (individual of same species that have come
into the habitat)
4. Emigration ( individual of population that have left the
habitat )
➢ If Nt is the population density at a time‗t‘, then its density
at time t+1 is
o Nt + 1 =Nt + [(B + I) – (D + E)]
➢ Population density will increase if the number of births plus
the number of immigrants (B + I) is more than the number of
deaths plus the number of emigrants (D + E), otherwise it will
decrease.

Growth Model: Growth of population takes place


according to availability of food, habit condition and
presence of other biotic and abiotic factors. There are two
main types of models-
Exponential Growth- in this kinds of
growth occurs when food and space is
available in sufficient amount. When
resources in the habitat are unlimited,
each species has the ability to realise
fully its innate potential to grow in
number .The population grows in an
exponential or geometric fashion. If in
a population of size N, the birth rates
as represented as “b” and death rate as
“d”, then increase and decrease in N
during unit period time “t” will be
dN / dt = (b – d) × N
Let (b – d) = r, then
dN / dt = rN
Then, the r in this equation is called
‘intrinsic rate of natural increase‘.
Integral form of exponential growth equation is:
Nt = N0ert
Where, N= Population size
N
t = Population density after time t
N = Population density at time zero
o
r= intrinsic rate of natural increase
e= The base of natural logarithms
b= birth rate
d= death rate
“r” is an important parameter assessing impacts of biotic and abiotic factors on
population growth. “r” for:
Floor Beetle was= 0.12
Norway Rat= 0.015
Human population in 1981= 0.0205
• In exponential growth, when N in relation to time is plotted on graph, the
curve becomes J shaped.
Logistic Growth- there is a competition between the individuals of a
population for food and space. The fittest organism survives and
reproduces. In this types of growth initially shows a lag phase followed
by phases of acceleration and de-acceleration.
• When N is plotted in relation to time t, the logistic growth shows
sigmoid curve and is called Verhulst- Pearl logistic growth and is:

Where N = Population density at time t


R = Intrinsic rate of natural increase
K = Carrying capacity : Every ecosystem or environment/habitathas
limited resourcesto support a particular maximum number of
individuals called its carrying capacity (K).

Since resources for growth for populations are finite and become
limiting , the logistic growth model is considered a more realistic one.
Life History Variation
Darwinian fitness refers to thepopulations where they evolve to
maximise their reproductive fitness, i.ie., high ‘r’ value.
Under selection pressure, organisms evolve towards the most
efficient reproductive strategy.
1. Breed once in lifetime: Pacific salmon, bamboo
2. Breed multiple times: Most birds, mammals
3. Produce large number of small sized offsprings: oysters, pelagic
fishes
4. Producesmall number of large sized offsprings( k selected): birds,
mammals
•Population interaction
All animals, plants and microbes in a biological community
interact with each other. These interactions may be beneficial,
detrimental or neutral to one of species or both. Following
types of interaction is seen-
a. Predation
b. Competition
c. Parasitism
d. Commensalism
e. Mutualism

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy