LEC 3 Reading Guide

What is ecology? What sorts of problems do ecologists work on?

What four things can change the size of a population? What are the vital rates?

What do changes in population size reflect?

What do B, I, D, and E stand for?

What does N represent? What does t represent? What is lambda, λ? What dies it mean if lambda is greater than, less than, or equal to 1?

How can we predict population size one time step into the future? Why should you be careful predicting very far into the future?

How does lambda relate to the percent increase in the population?

What is the difference between discrete and continuous growth?

What is dN/dt? What is r_max?

How are λ and r_max related?

What is the difference between B, I, D, and E vs b, i, d, and e?

What does “per capita” mean?

What is the relationship between r and r_max?Ho

How can you calculate the change in population size for a population that is growing exponentially?

If given information on biths, deaths, immigration, emigration, and population size — or if given b, i, d, and e — how can you calculate r?

For what values of r are populations growing? What about for λ? For what values of r are populations shrinking? What about for λ?

When a population has a constant r_max or λ, what happens to the number of individuals added to the population per time step?