POPULATION

Population
❑ It consists of a group of organisms of a single species found in an area
❑ Individuals of a population are morphologically and behaviourly similar
❑ Individuals of a population interbreed freely
❑ There is no relationship of eating and be eaten
❑ The branch of science which deals with the study of population is known as population
ecology and population ecology is an autecology

Community
❑ It comprises of a group of organisms of
different species found in an area
❑ Different members of a community are
morphologically and behaviourally
dissimilar
❑ In a biotic community there is often a
relationship of eating and being eaten
❑ Interbreeding is absent amongst
different members of a community
❑ Community ecology is synecology
Characteristics of population –
1. Population Size and Density
The size of a population depends on
birth
death
migration
Size = Number of organism present at any instant + birth +immigration – death - emigration
i) Crude density - It is the density (number or biomass) per unit total space.
ii) Ecological density or specific or economic density - It is the density (number or
biomass) per unit of habitat space i.e., available area or volume that can actually be
colonized by the population.

2. Population dispersion or spatial distribution:

➢ Clustered or clumped dispersion – Individuals are usually aggregated in groups and
occurs due to mutual attraction or availability of resources in a particular space
➢ Random dispersion – Pattern of spacing is haphazard in nature and can be due to the
absence of strong competition or environmental factors.
➢ Regular dispersion - Here the individuals are more or less equidistant from each other.
Regularity or evenness of resources or environmental factors result in regular
dispersion.
3. Natality
It is a broader term which covers the production of new individuals by birth, hatching, by
fission, etc. The natality rate may be expressed as the number of organisms born per
female per unit time.
❖ Maximum natality –
Also known as absolute or potential or physiological natality. it is the theoretical maximum
production of new individuals under ideal conditions which means that there are no
ecological limiting factors and that reproduction is limited only by physiological factors.
❖ Ecological natality –
Also known as realized natality or simply natality. The production of offspring under
existing or actual environmental condition. It is always lower than maximum natality.
Natality is expressed as
Absolute Natality rate (B) = ∆Nn/∆ t

Specific natality rate (b) (i.e., natality rate per unit of population) = ∆Nn/N ∆ t

Where ∆Nn = new offspring produced

N = initial number of organisms.
n = new individuals in the population.
t = time.
Crude birth rate (CBR) – The number of individuals born per thousand in the population per year.

Specific birth rate – The number of offspring born per unit time in various age group

Generation time – It is the average interval between the birth of and individual and the birth of its
offspring.

Doubling time – The time period required by the population to attain double of its size.

4. Mortality
It refers to the number of death of organisms in a population over time.

❖ Minimum mortality:
Also called specific or potential mortality, it represents the theoretical minimum loss under ideal or
non-limiting conditions. It is a constant for a population.

❖ Ecological or realised mortality

Actual loss of organisms under existing environmental conditions. Ecological mortality is not constant
for a population and varies with population and environmental conditions, such as predation, disease
and other ecological hazards.

Age specific mortality rate – It refers to the fraction of individuals in a population dying during a given
age interval as found in many countries due to socio – economic
Conditions
Crude death rate (CDR) – It refers to the number of individuals dying per thousand in the population
per year .
5. Survivorship and survivorship curves
It denotes the probability of individuals in a population to
survive from age zero to given age.
A survivorship curve is a graph showing the number or
proportion of individuals surviving to each age for a given
species or group (e.g. males or females).
Three general types of survivorship curves are –
a) Type I or convex curves are characterized by
high age-specific survival probability in early and middle
life, followed by a rapid decline in survival in later life.
They are typical of species that produce few offspring but
care for them well, including humans and many other
large mammals.
b) Type II or diagonal curves are an
intermediate between Types I and III, where roughly
constant mortality rate /survival probability is experienced
regardless of age. Some birds and some lizards follow this
pattern.
c) Type III or concave curve shows high
mortality in the initial stages and comparatively very few
survive till the end of their life span. It is generally found in
shell fishes, molluscs and other lower organisms.
6. Ecological ages
Dividing the entire life span of an organism into ecological age groups.
In human , the ecological ages are –
❑ pre- reproductive age – population less than 15 years old
❑ reproductive age – population between 15 to 49 years
❑ post reproductive age - population more than 49 years

7. Age structure

Age distribution is the proportion of individuals of all ecological groups of the population.
The model representing geometrically the proportions of different age groups in the population of any
organism is called age pyramid

i) Broad based age pyramid

▪ Indicated high percentage of young population
▪ rapid population growth
▪ high natality with subsequently low survivorship
▪ Human population found in many developing countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India etc.

ii) Bell – shaped age pyramid

▪ Indicated young to old population in moderate proportion
▪ population growth rate is slow
▪ it indicated more or less steady or stable population
▪ Observed in more developed countries like United States , Canada, UK, New Zealand, France etc.
iii) Rectangular polygon
▪ Here all age groups are equally abundant
▪ indicated low natality and high survivorship
▪ Shows almost zero population growth and shows stable structures
▪ found in countries like Bosnia, Norfolk Island etc.

iv) Urn – shaped age pyramid

▪ indicates low percentage of young population
▪ shows low natality and high survivorship
▪ shows negative population growth – a declining or dying off population
▪ Found in countries like Poland, Hungary, Germany, Japan etc.

The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population

size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat,
water, and other necessities available in the environment.
Types of population
❑ Expansive or Type I-
Poor countries are traditionally characterized by
1)high fertility
2) high mortality
3) high number of children and moderate growth rate
❑ Expansive or Type II –
Less developed nations are characterized by
1) high fertility
2) declining mortality
3)high growth rate of population and very young population
❑ Stationary –
The developed nations are characterized by
1) declining fertility
2) declining mortality
3) moderate growth rate
4) aging population
❑ Constrictive –
1) low fertility
2) low mortality
3)ceasing growth rate and
very old population
Demographic transition
The theory of demographic transition was proposed by the American demographer Warren
Thompson in 1929. It refers to the transition from high birth and death rates to lower birth and death
rates as a country or region develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system.

There are four stages to the classical demographic transition model:

Stage 1: Pre-transition
Characterised by high birth rates, and high fluctuating death rates.
Population growth was kept low by Malthusian "preventative" (late age at marriage) and "positive"
(famine, war, pestilence) checks.

Stage 2: Early transition

During the early stages of the transition, the death rate begins to fall.
As birth rates remain high, the population starts to grow rapidly.

Stage 3: Late transition

Birth rates start to decline.
The rate of population growth decelerates.

Stage 4: Post-transition
Post-transitional societies are characterised by low birth and low death rates.
Population growth is negligible, or even enters a decline
In exponential growth, a population's per
capita (per individual) growth rate stays
the same regardless of population size,
making the population grow faster and
faster as it gets larger.
In nature, populations may grow
exponentially for some period, but they
will ultimately be limited by resource
availability.

In logistic growth, a population's per

capita growth rate gets smaller and
smaller as population size approaches a
maximum imposed by limited resources in
the environment, known as the carrying
capacity .
Exponential growth produces a J-shaped
curve, while logistic growth produces
an S-shaped curve.
Family Welfare Programme (FWP) -
The main strategies for the successful implementation of the FWP programme are:
❑ FWP is integrated with other health services and emphasis is in the rural areas
❑ 2-children family norm to be practiced
❑ Adopting terminal methods to create a gap between the birth of 2 children
❑ Door-to-door campaigns to encourage families to accept the small family norm
❑ Encouraging education for both boys and girls
❑ Encouragement of breast feeding
❑ Proper marriageable adopted (21 years for men and 18 years for women)
❑ Minimum Needs Programme launched to raise the standard of living of the people.
❑ Monetary incentives given to poor people to adopt family planning measures.
❑ Creating widespread awareness of family planning through television, radio, news papers,
puppet shows etc.

Main objectives of Family Welfare Program are –

• to stabilize the population
• to provide qualitative health services including immunization to both-pregnant mother
and children.
• to boost the health care delivery, each State Govt. has formulated health reforms and
implemented the same to give better autonomy to the health institutions
• to provide a comprehensive family health care package including services, family
planning, Immunization, training etc.
Occurs when the ecological
footprint of a human population
in a specific geographical location
exceeds the carrying capacity of
the place occupied by that group
Causes of overpopulation -
❑ Falling mortality rate, mainly due to availability of better medical facility
❑ Agricultural revolution which caused more efficient agricultural production,
resulting in year-round crops, more resistant seeds, pesticides etc.
❑ Migration and urban concentration
❑ Illiteracy and ignorance
❑ Lack of Family Planning:
Effects of over population -
• Depletion of natural resources
• Degradation of environment
• Amplified climate change and global warming
• Depreciation of fresh water
• Accelerated habitat loss
• Loss of biodiversity
• Rise in unemployment , crime rate, and violence
• Rise in cost of living
• Lower life expectancy and diminished quality of life
• Increased intensive farming practices
Solution of overpopulation:
1. Better education
2. Making common people aware of Family Planning
3. Knowledge of sex education
4. Effective policy making and modification in existing policy
 Over population in India

Common causes of over population in India –

In India, birth rate is still higher than death rate and fertility rate is also high. Various
social issues associated with high birth rate and fertility rate in India are –
➢ Early Marriage and Universal Marriage System
➢ Poverty , Illiteracy and superstition
➢ Illegal migration

Effects of overpopulation –
❑ Unemployment and lack of proper utilization of manpower
❑ Pressure on existing infrastructure
❑ Exploitation of available resources
❑ Decreased production and increased cost
❑ Inequitable income distribution