BIOL 1150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Logistic Function, Exponential Growth, Doubling Time
Document Summary
Describe various factors that affect population size. Interpret changes in birth rate, size of the starting population, age structure of the population. Define the terms immigration, emigration, doubling time, and carrying capacity. Explain the factors that affect whether an exponential or logistic growth pattern exists for a population. Differentiate between density-independent and density-dependent factors that regulate population size. Identify problems directly caused by the increasing human population. Explain the human factors that lead to depletion of natural resources. Population grows when births and immigration outnumbers deaths and emigration. The larger the population, the faster it grows. Environmental factors with cause a population"s growth to level off. Population size at which growth is zero = the population"s carrying capacity. Carrying capacity varies depending on species and habitat. At carrying capacity, the population is as large as it can get in its current environment. The growth rate slows as it reaches the carrying capacity because of density-dependent factors.
