Population Distribution and Abundance

Chapter 9

1
 Outline
Distribution Limits
Distribution Patterns
Metapopulations
Organism Size and Population Density
Commonness and Rarity

2
 Introduction
Ecologists usually define a population as a
group of individuals of a single species
inhabiting a specific area.
Characterized by the number of

individuals and their density.

Additional characteristics of a

population include age distributions,

growth rates, distribution, and
abundance.

3
 Distribution Limits
Physical environment limits geographic
distribution of a species.
Organisms can only compensate so much

for environmental variation.

4
During their annual migration, the entire population
of gray whales migrates from subtropical waters off
Baja California to the Arctic and back again
5
Some of the monarch
butterflies roosting on
these trees flew
thousands of
kilometers from the
rocky mountains to
reach their winter
roost.

6
 Kangaroo Distributions and Climate
Caughley found a close relationship
between climate and distribution of the three
largest kangaroos in Australia.
Macropus giganteus - Eastern Grey

Eastern 1/3 of continent.

Macropus fuliginosus - Western Grey

Southern and western regions.

Macropus rufus - Red

Arid / semiarid interior.

7
Kangaroo Distributions and Climate

8
 Kangaroo Distributions and Climate
Limited distributions may not be directly
determined by climate.
Climate often influences species

distributions via:
Food production

Water supply

Habitat

Incidence of parasites, pathogens and

competitors.
9
 Tiger Beetle of Cold Climates
Tiger Beetle (Cicindela longilabris) lives at
higher latitudes and elevations than most
other species in NA.
Schultz et. al. found metabolic rates of C.

longilabris are higher and preferred

temperatures lower than most other
species.
Supports generalization that the

physical environment limits species

distributions.
10
 Tiger Beetle of Cold Climates

A tiger beetle,
Cicindella
longilabris,
confined to
cool
environments.
Physiological
studies
conducted on
populations
indicated by
yellow dots.
11
Fig. 9.4. Uniform temperature preferences
12
across an extensive geographic range.
 Distributions of Plants along a Moisture-
Temperature Gradient
Encelia species distributions correspond to
variations in temperature and precipitation.

13
Fig. 9.6 Light absorption by leaves of Encelia
frutescens and E. farinosa 14
 Fig. 9.7 Temperature regulation and
distributions of Encelia farinosa and E.
frutescens across microenvironments
15
 Distributions of Barnacles along an
Intertidal Exposure Gradient
Organisms living in an intertidal zone have
evolved to different degrees of resistance to
drying.
Barnacles show distinctive patterns of

zonation within intertidal zone.

Connell found Chthamalus stellatus

restricted to upper levels while Balanus

balanoides is limited to middle and
lower levels.

16
 Distributions of Barnacles along an
Intertidal Gradient
Balanus appears to be more vulnerable to
desiccation, excluding it from the upper
intertidal zone.
Chthamalus adults appear to be excluded

from lower areas by competition with

Balanus.

17
Distributions of Barnacles along an
Intertidal Gradient

18
Fig. 9.9 Barnacle mortality in the upper
intertidal zone 19
 Distribution of Individuals on Small Scales
Random: Equal chance of being anywhere.
Uniform distribution of resources.

Regular: Uniformly spaced.

Exclusive use of areas.

Individuals avoid one another.

Clumped: Unequal chance of being

anywhere.
Mutual attraction between individuals.

Patchy resource distribution.

20
Distribution of Individuals on Small Scales

21
Fig. 9.11 Regular and random distributions of
stingless bee colonies in the tropical dry forest
are related to aggresion 22
 Distribution of Tropical Bee Colonies
Hubbell and Johnson predicted aggressive
bee colonies would show regular distributions
while non-aggressive species would show
random or clumped distributions.
As predicted, four species with regular

distributions were highly aggressive.

Fifth was non-aggressive and randomly

distributed.
Prospective nest sites marked with

pheromones.
23
 Distributions of Desert Shrubs
Traditional theory suggests desert shrubs
are regularly spaced due to competition.
Phillips and MacMahon found distribution

of desert shrubs changes from clumped to

regular patterns as they grow.
Young shrubs clumped for (3) reasons:

Seeds germinate at safe sites

Seeds not dispersed from parent areas

Asexual reproduction

24
 Distributions of Desert Shrubs
Phillips and MacMahon proposed as plants
grow, some individuals in clumps die,
reducing clumping.
Competition among remaining plants

produces higher mortality.

Eventually creates regular distributions.

Brisson and Reynolds found competitive

interactions with neighboring shrubs appear
to influence distribution of creosote roots,
Larrea tridentata.
25
Fig. 9.12 Are local populations of creosote bush,
Larrea tridentata, distributed regularly? 26
Fig. 9.13 Change in creosote bush
distributions with increasing shrub size.

27
Fig. 9.14 Creosote bush root distributions:
hypothetical versus actual root overlap.
28
29
Fig. 9.14b

30
Fig. 9.14c

31
 Distributions of Individuals on Large Scales
Bird Populations Across North America
Root found at continental scale, bird

populations showed clumped distributions

in Christmas Bird Counts.
Clumped patterns occur in species with

widespread distributions.
Brown found a relatively small proportion

of study sites yielded most of records for

each bird species in Breeding Bird Survey.

32
Fig. 9.15 (a)
winter
distribution of
American
crow, Corvus
brachyrynchos
. (b) Winter
distribution of
the fish crow,
C. assifragus.

33
Fig. 9.15b

34
Fig. 9.16
Red-eyed
vireos Vireo
olivaceus,
counted
along
census
routes of
the 35
 Plant Abundance along Moisture Gradients
Whittaker examined distributions of woody
plants along moisture gradients in several
North American mountain ranges.
Documented moisture gradient from moist

canyon bottoms up to the dry southwest-

facing slopes.
Tree species showed a highly clumped

distribution along moisture gradients,

with densities decreasing substantially
toward the edges of their distribution.
36
Plant Abundance Along Moisture Gradients

37
Fig. 9.19 Body size and population
density of herbivorous mammals. 38
 Metapopulations
A metapopulation is made up of a group of
subpopulations living on patches of habitat
connected by an exchange of individuals.
Alpine Butterfly - Roland et.al.

Lesser Kestrels - Serrano and Tella.

39
 Organism Size and Population Density
In general, population density declines with
increasing organism size.
Damuth found the population density of

herbivorous mammals decreased with

increased body size.
Peters and Wassenberg found aquatic

invertebrates tend to have higher

population densities than terrestrial
invertebrates of similar size.
Mammals tend to have higher population

densities than birds of similar size.

40
Organism Size and Population Density

41
 Plant Size and Population Density
Plant population density decreases with
increasing plant size.
Underlying details are very different.

Tree seedlings can live at very high

densities, but as the trees grow, density

declines progressively until mature trees
are at low densities.

42
Fig. 9.21 Plant
size and
population
density

43
 Commonness and Rarity
Rabinowitz devised commonness
classification based on (3) factors:
Geographic Range of Species

Habitat Tolerance

Local Population Size

Populations that are least threatened by

extinction, have extensive geographic
ranges, broad habitat tolerances, and some
large local populations.
All seven other combinations create some

kind of rarity. 44
Fig. 9.22

45
 Rarity
Rarity I
Extensive Range, Broad Habitat

Tolerance, Small Local Populations

Peregrine Falcon

Rarity II
Extensive Rage, Large Populations,

Narrow Habitat Tolerance

Passenger Pigeon

46
 Rarity
Rarity III
Restricted Range, Narrow Habitat

Tolerance, Small Populations

California Condor

47
 Review

Distribution Limits
Distribution Patterns
Metapopulations
Organism Size and Population Density
Commonness and Rarity

48
49