Population ecology

Population ecology or autoecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment. It is the study of how the population sizes of species groups change over time and space.

The development of population ecology owes much to demography and actuarial life tables. Population ecology is important in conservation biology, especially in the development of population viability analysis (PVA) which makes it possible to predict the long-term probability of a species persisting in a given habitat patch. Although population ecology is a subfield of biology, it provides interesting problems for mathematicians and statisticians who work in population dynamics.

Fundamentals

The most fundamental law of population ecology is Thomas Malthus' exponential law of population growth.

A population will grow (or decline) exponentially as long as the environment experienced by all individuals in the population remains constant.