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Module 5: Population Biology

Case Study: How Many Fish Are There
It’s difficult to know how many fish are in the ocean.
We can’t see them easily, and often we don’t even know where they are.
Our estimates of population size often are based on the harvest brought in by
fishing boats.
Biologists warn that many marine species are overfished and in danger of
catastrophic population crashes.
Research shows that 90% of large predators such as tuna, marlin, swordfish, sharks, cod, and halibut are gone from the ocean.
Fish and seafood (including freshwater species) contribute more than 140 million metric tons of highly valued food every year,
and are the main animal protein source for about one-quarter of the world population.
Marine biologists note, however, that we’re “fishing down the food chain.”
First we pursued the top predators and ground fish until they were commercially extinct, then we went after smaller fish, such
as pilchard, capelin, pollock, and eels.
When they became scarce, we turned to squid, skates, and other species once discarded as unwanted by-catch.
Finally, we’ve begun harvesting invertebrates, such as sea cucumbers and krill, that many people regard as inedible.
Dynamics of Population Growth:
Consider the common housefly (Musca domestica).
Each female fly lays 120 eggs (assume half female) in a generation.
In 56 days those eggs become mature adults, able to reproduce.
In one year, with seven generations of flies being born and reproducing,
that original fly would be the proud parent of 5.6 trillion offspring.
If this rate of reproduction continued for ten years, the entire earth would
be covered in several meters of housefly bodies.
Luckily housefly reproduction, as for most organisms, is constrained in a variety of ways—scarcity of resources,
competition, predation, disease, accident.
The housefly merely demonstrates the remarkable amplification—the biotic potential—of unrestrained biological
reproduction (fig. 6.2). Population dynamics describes these changes in the number of organisms in a
population over time.
Rate of growth: 4 Factors are (BIDE):
1. Births
2. Immigration from other areas
3. Deaths
4. Emigration to other areas More specifically, rate of growth = Births + Immigration – Deaths – Emigration.
Number of births might rise more rapidly than number of deaths.
The two terms that make population grow:
1. births 2. immigration
Birth rates are different for different species (house flies vs. elephants, for example), and birth rate can decline if there are
food shortages or if crowding leads to stress.
Two negative terms:
1. deaths 2. emigration (individuals leave the population)

Mortality/death rate = is the portion of the population that dies in any given time period, determined by:
1. environmental factors 2. organism’s physiology/natural life span
Some microorganisms live whole life cycles in a few hours or even minutes.
Bristlecone pine trees in the mountains of California, on the other hand, have life spans up to 4,600 years.
Factors that Regulate Population Growth:
> primarily by affecting natality or mortality, and can be classified in different ways.
1. They can be intrinsic (operating within individual organisms or between organisms in the same species) or extrinsic
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(imposed from outside the population).

2. also be either biotic (caused by living organisms) or abiotic (caused by nonliving components of the environment).
3. Finally, the regulatory factors can act in a density-dependent manner (effects are stronger or a higher proportion of
the population is affected as population density increases) or density-independent manner (the effect is the same
or a constant proportion of the population is affected regardless of population density)
In general, biotic regulatory factors tend to be density-dependent, while abiotic factors tend to be density-independent.
Interspecific Interactions = Occur Between Species
Predator feeds on—and usually kills—its prey species.
While the relationship is one-sided with respect to a particular pair of organisms,
the prey species as a whole may benefit from the predation.
For instance, the moose that gets eaten by wolves doesn’t benefit individually, but
the moose population is strengthened because the wolves tend to kill old or
sick members of the herd.
Their predation helps prevent population overshoot, so the remaining moose are
stronger and healthier.
Intraspecific Interactions = Occur Within Species
Individuals within a population also compete for resources.
When population density is low, resources are likely to be plentiful and the population growth rate will approach the
maximum possible for the species, assuming that individuals are not so dispersed that they cannot find mates.
Territoriality is one principal way many animal species control access to environmental resources.
The individual, pair, or group that holds the territory will drive off rivals if possible, either by threats, displays of superior
features (colors, size, dancing ability), or fighting equipment (teeth, claws, horns, antlers).
Members of the opposite sex are attracted to individuals that are able to seize and defend the largest share of the resources.
Stress Related Diseases:
When population densities get very high, organisms often exhibit symptoms of what is called stress shock or stress related
diseases. These terms describe a loose set of physical, psychological, and/or behavioral changes that are thought to
result from the stress of too much competition and too close proximity to other members of the same species.
Conservation genetics is important in survival of endangered species:
Genetics plays an important role in the survival or extinction of small, isolated populations.
In large populations, genetic variation tends to persist in what is called a Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, named after the
scientists who first described why this occurs.
If mating is random, no mutations (changes in genetic material) occur, and there is no gene in-flow or selective pressure
for or against particular traits, random distribution of gene types will occur from sexual reproduction.
That is, different gene types will be distributed in the offspring in the same ratio they occur in the parents, and genetic
diversity is preserved.
In small, isolated populations, however, immigration, mortality, mutations, or chance mating events involving only a few
individuals can greatly alter the genetic makeup of the whole population.
We call the gradual changes in gene frequencies due to random events as genetic drift.
For many species, loss of genetic diversity causes a number of harmful effects that limit adaptability, reproduction, and
species survival.
A founder effect or demographic bottleneck occurs when just a few members of a species survive a catastrophic event or
colonize new habitat geographically isolated from other members of the same species.
Any deleterious genes present in the founders will be overrepresented in subsequent generations (fig. 6.13).

Population viability analysis calculates chances of survival:

Conservation biologists use the concepts of island biogeography,
genetic drift, and founder effects to determine minimum viable
population size = number of individuals needed for long-term
survival of rare and endangered species.
Metapopulation = is a collection of populations that have regular or
intermittent gene flow between geographically separate units.
For example, the Bay checker spot butterfly (Euphydrays editha bayensis)
in California exists in several distinct habitat patches. Individuals
occasionally move among these patches, mating with existing animals or
recolonizing empty habitats.
Thus, the apparently separate groups form a functional metapopulation.