1. FW 491 – Online Ecological Module By: Jessica Caton

2. Introduction to Population Ecology What is a population? – A group of individuals of a single species inhabiting a specific area More info here…. Areas of study involved – Population genetics – Population dynamics

3. Population Dynamics Definition: an area of population ecology concerned with the factors influencing the expansion, decline, or maintenance of populations, including rates of births, deaths, immigration, and emmigration (p. 222) Possibly more here? Tools used: life tables and survivorship curve

4. Life Tables Definition: a table of age-specific survival and death, or mortality, rates in a population (p. 230) Types of life tables: – Cohort life table: a table based on individuals born (or beginning life in some other way) at same time (p. 230) – Static life table: a life table constructed by recording the age at death of a large number of individuals; a snapshot of survival within a population during a short interval of time (p. 231)

5. Type of Life Table: Cohort Discuss further Example with penguins

6. Type of Life Table: Static Discuss further Example with penguins

7. Variables in Life Tables n x l x m x l x m x R 0 R 0 = ∑l x m x

8. Age Distribution Definition: the distribution of individuals among age groups in a population; often called age structure (p. 231)

9. Survivorship Curve Definition: a graphical summary of patterns of survival in a population (p. 231) Type I, II, III

10. Things to address/questions that came up… Follow order of Molles textbook? (Patterns of Survival, Rates of Population Change headings…) Use figures from textbook? http://www.scioly.org/wiki/Ecology