population dynamics

Examples of population dynamics in the following topics:

• Population Demography

  • Demography is the study of population dynamics, using statistical and mathematical tools.
  • Understanding the population dynamics of the carp will help biologists develop and implement measures that reduce its population, allowing scientists to model the statistics of carp populations.
  • Populations are dynamic entities, consisting of all of the species living within a specific area.
  • Demography, the statistical study of population dynamics, uses mathematical tools to investigate how populations respond to changes in their biotic and abiotic environments.
  • The term "demographics" is often used in discussions of human populations, but demographic approaches can be applied to all living populations.

• The Study of Population Dynamics

  • Demography, or the study of population dynamics, is studied using tools such as life tables and survivorship curves.
  • Population size, density, and distribution patterns describe a population at a fixed point in time.
  • To study how a population changes over time, scientists must use the tools of demography: the statistical study of population changes over time.
  • Biological features of the population also affect population changes over time.
  • The demographic characteristics of a population are the basic determinants of how the population changes over time.

• Age Structure, Population Growth, and Economic Development

  • The variation of populations over time, also known as population dynamics, depends on biological and environmental processes that determine population changes.
  • With knowledge of this age structure, population growth can be more accurately predicted.
  • Some developed countries, such as Italy, have zero population growth.
  • The stable population diagram is rounded on top; the older part of the population is a larger proportion of the population than in the other age diagrams.
  • Explain how age structure in a population is associated with population growth and economic development

• Ecosystem Dynamics

  • Ecosystems are dynamic entities controlled both by external and internal factors.
  • In 1993, a change in ecosystem dynamics caused a disease outbreak in a human population.
  • The higher population of deer mice meant more mouse droppings and more opportunities to transmit hantavirus to humans.
  • In early 1993, the rainfall caused an increase in vegetation, which caused an increase the local deer mice population.
  • Hantavirus infected the high deer mouse population and was quickly transmitted to humans via aerosolized mouse droppings.

• Predation, Herbivory, and the Competitive Exclusion Principle

  • The most-often-cited example of predator-prey dynamics is seen in the cycling of the lynx (predator) and the snowshoe hare (prey), which is based on nearly 200-year-old trapping data from North American forests .
  • When the lynx population grows to a threshold level, they kill so many hares that the hare population begins to decline.
  • The cycling of lynx and snowshoe hare populations in Northern Ontario is an example of predator-prey dynamics.
  • As hare populations increase,the lynx populations also increase due to increased food supplies.
  • This results in a decrease in the lynx population.

• Introduction to Ecology

  • Ecology is the study of organisms, populations, and communities as they relate to one another and interact in the ecosystems they comprise.
  • These levels are organism, population, community, and ecosystem .
  • In ecology, ecosystems are composed of dynamically-interacting parts, which include organisms, the communities they comprise, and the non-living (abiotic) components of their environment.
  • In addition, physiological ecology, or ecophysiology, studies the responses of the individual organism to the environment, while population ecology looks at the similarities and dissimilarities of populations and how they replace each other over time.
  • Ecologists study within several biological levels of organization, which include organism, population, community, and ecosystem.

• History of Bacterial Diseases

  • The population in Europe dropped by 50 percent during this outbreak.
  • The Black Death reduced the world's population from an estimated 450 million to about 350 to 375 million.
  • The distribution of a particular disease is dynamic.
  • They devastated populations, became dormant for a while, but have re-emerged, sometimes more virulent than before.
  • The (a) Great Plague of London killed an estimated 200,000 people, or about twenty percent of the city's population.

• The Role of Species within Communities

  • Understanding community structure and dynamics enables community ecologists to manage ecosystems more effectively.
  • Invasive species are often better competitors than native species, resulting in population explosions.
  • These new species usually overtake the native populations, driving them to localized extinctions.
  • One of the many recent proliferations of an invasive species concerns the growth of Asian carp populations.
  • When this animal is removed from certain areas, its prey species greatly alters the dynamics of the ecosystem, reducing biodiversity.

• Studying Ecosystem Dynamics

  • Many different models are used to study ecosystem dynamics, including holistic, experimental, conceptual, analytical, and simulation models.
  • Ecosystem dynamics is the study of the changes in ecosystem structure caused by environmental disturbances or by internal forces.
  • Various research methodologies measure ecosystem dynamics.
  • A holistic ecosystem model attempts to quantify the composition, interaction, and dynamics of entire ecosystems.
  • Differentiate between conceptual, analytical, and simulation models of ecosystem dynamics, and mesocosm and microcosm research studies

• Biological Magnification

  • One of the most important environmental consequences of ecosystem dynamics is biomagnification: the increasing concentration of persistent, toxic substances in organisms at each trophic level, from the primary producers to the apex consumers.
  • This effect increased egg breakage during nesting, which was shown to have adverse effects on these bird populations.
  • Biomagnification is a good example of how ecosystem dynamics can affect our everyday lives, even influencing the food we eat.