1. Populations

2. What is a population
Population - is a set of individuals within a species living in the same place at the same time.
Populations are described in terms of:
Size, density and dispersion
Density – the number of individuals per unit of area or volume
Dispersion – describes the arrangement of its individuals in space
Clumped, even or random

4. How does a population grow
The change in the size or a population over a given period of time is called a ___________
growth rate
Growth rates can be positive, negative or even zero
Change in the population size
Births
Deaths

5. How fast can a population grow
Population growth is directly related to how fast and how many offspring an organism can have. This is called reproductive potential.
Some species have much higher reproductive potentials than others
Bacteria can produce 19 million descendants in a few days
A pair of whales would take hundreds of years to have that many descendants

6. Which organism has a higher reproductive potential??
Humans or Rabbits

7. Shape of the graph of number of dogs over time
Exponential Growth
Some populations undergo exponential growth – which means they grow faster and faster.
Example
A pair of dogs gives birth to 6 puppies, this is generation one what happens for generation 2?
Each puppy has 6 puppies it goes to 36 dogs in generation 2 and so on…
Shape of the graph of number of dogs over time

8. Q’n: under what conditions does exponential growth take place?
Answer:
Exponential growth takes place when the populations have plenty of food and space and have little or no completion or predators

9. What limits population growth?
With your partner generate a list of what would limit population growth
These things include :
Resources – food water shelter
Environmental changes
Deaths
Migration
Natural selection

10. Carrying Capacity
Carrying capacity – is the population size where birth rates and death rates are equal. Or the maximum population that its ecosystem can support.
A population can increase beyond its carrying capacity but it cannot stay there for long because of limiting resources
Example - rabbits in Australia (video)

11. http://animal. discovery

12. What carrying capacity looks like

13. Your task – on the back of the half sheet
Create a carrying capacity comic strip
Must have at least five different scenes (boxes).
Must include the vocabulary terms:
Carrying capacity
Resources (food, water shelter etc)
Population
Be creative and use color.