Eddy Egan May 30, 2007

Tuliszewski Period ½
Section 5-1 Summarization

1. Forests of giant kelp provide a habitat for a variety of animals. Sea otters feed on
sea urchins and sea urchins feed on kelp as an example.
2. Food chains set the stage for population growth and decline. Ex. Otters nearly
eliminated thus not eating a lot of prey, sea urchin populations grew vast due to
not being eaten, and kelp disappeared due to hordes of sea urchins. Otters then
thrived again, urchin numbers dropped, and kelp grew back.
3. Three important characteristics of a population are its geographic distribution (or
range, - the area inhabited by a population), density and growth rate. Can range
from centimeters to millions of square miles.
4. Population density is the number of individuals per unit area. Can vary by species
and ecosystem.
5. Natural population may stay the same size from year to year, but a population can
grow rapidly. Same with decrease in size.
6. Three factors can affect population size: the number of births, the number of
deaths, and the number of individuals that enter or leave the population. A
population will increase or decrease in size depending on how many individuals
are added to it or removed from it.
7. Generally, Populations will grow if more individuals are born than die in any
period of time.
8. If birthrate > than death rate population stays more or less the same size, if death
rate > than birth rate the population shrinks.
9. Immigration, the movement of individuals into an area and can cause populations
to grow. Emigration, the movement of individuals out of an area, can cause
populations to shrink. Ex. Emigration can occur when young animals leave the
area where they were born, find mates, find food, and establish new territories and
Immigration can occur when animals arrive from outside to find these things.
10. If a population had abundant space and food, and is protected from predators and
disease, then organisms in the population will multiply and the population size
will increase.
11. Under ideal conditions bacteria double in 20 minutes. So in 20 minutes there are 2
bacteria, 20 more min’s – 4 bacteria, one hour – 8 bacteria, two hours – 64
bacteria, three hours – 512 bacteria. Etc. A growth pattern
12. Exponential growth occurs when the individuals in a population reproduce at a
constant rate, under ideal conditions with unlimited resources this can occur.
Starts slowly, over time pop. Becomes larger and larger until approaches an
infinitely large size.
13. Reproduction rates vary greater and can range but is not limited to 20 minutes to 2
to 4 years.
14. Exponential growth does not continue in natural populations for very long.
15. At first, population increases slowly as reproduction begins, due to unlimited
resources population grows exponentially. In time, the rate slows down but
population is still increasing at this much slower rate.
16. As resources become less available, the growth of a population slows or stops.
Logistics growth occurs when a population’s growth slows or stops following a
period of exponential growth.
17. Population growth may slow down when birthrate decrease, death rate increases,
or when both occur at the same rate, rate of immigration decreases, and rate of
emigration increases or both. When birthrate = death rate or immigration rate =
emigration rate, population will slow down or stop. Note: When population
growth is said to stop it is still rising and falling.
18. Carrying Capacity is the largest number of individuals that a given environment
can support.
19. Many natural populations of familiar plant and animal species will follow a
logistic growth curve. Many factors can slow the growth of a population