FRWS 3810
Plant and Animal
Population Ecology
Dr. Jennifer Gervais, instructor
Craig Thompson, teaching assistant
Syllabus in brief…
Course Objectives
Define population ecology as a science
Understand its relationship to evolution,
ecology, management, and conservation
Understand basic concepts of population structure
growth, and dynamics
Compare and contrast population ecology
between animals and plants
TEXTS
There is no textbook for class– Readings will be drawn from many sources
– All will be available on electronic Course
Reserves and as hard copies on reserve in
the Quinney Library
The lab text:
Donovan and Weldon, 2002. Spreadsheets
in Conservation Biology and Landscape
Ecology
Laboratory Sessions
These will be in Quinney Computer Lab
Room 306 (NOT 304).
Lab assignments will be handed out at the beginning
of the session and are due at the beginning of the
following session
These are worth 20% of the final grade
Policy on working together…
Other Graded Work
Two mid-term exams
each worth 20%, cumulative to exam
The final exam
worth 25% of final grade
Sneak-attack quizzes (review notes prior to class!)
15% (lowest grade dropped)
Ungraded writing assignments
used to adjust overall grades at the finish
Resources
The class web page
(http://www.cnr.usu.edu/faculty/jgervais)
– Lecture outlines
– Supplementary material
– Links to other resources
Office hours
Dr. Gervais’ Office Hours: 12:00-1:30, MW, BNR 177
Craig’s Office Hours: 2:00-3:30, W, JQL 227
Or, call or email us for an appointment
Tips for Success
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Read lecture outline and bring it to lecture
Review your notes daily!
Ask when you don’t understand
Read the assigned reading, take notes
Make flashcards
Practice explaining the main points of lectures
and labs to a friend
• Sketch graphs and figures and explain them
• DON’T WAIT ‘TIL THE LAST MINUTE
SO, Population Ecology….
• What is it?
“The branch of ecology concerned
with the structure and dynamics of
populations”
Just what is a population, anyway?
Defining a population can be tricky…
• It is defined differently in different fields
In statistics, it is a group from which we wish to draw
inferences
In genetics, it is a group of interbreeding individuals
of the same species, isolated from other groups
In population ecology, it is a group of individuals of
the same species in the same area
Which of these are populations?
What kind of populations are they?
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The collection of people in this room
A stand of aspen
Aphids inhabiting the same shrub
A group of voles living on an island
Sagebrush on Mount Logan
Swans wintering within Cache Valley
Population ecology is linked to many
other biological disciplines
Community
ecology Landscape
ecology
Conservation
Population Population
biology
Ecology
genetics
Resource
management Evolution
Fundamentally, however, studies of
populations are interested in the same basic
processes regardless of the scientific
discipline:
• How do we take information regarding
individuals and draw inferences to groups
of individuals?
Individual Characteristics:
AGE
STAGE
SIZE
SEX
BEHAVIOR
Population characteristics:
NUMBERS
DENSITY
AGE/STAGE DISTRIBUTION
SEX RATIO
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
Individual Processes:
DEVELOPMENT
GROWTH
FEEDING
REPRODUCTION
DEATH
Population Processes:
POPULATION GROWTH
CHANGES IN NUMBERS
CHANGES IN DENSITY
CHANGES IN AGE DISTRIBUTION
MORTALITY
Summary
• Population biology deals with populations of
organisms; definitions are context-specific.
•Population biology touches on many other
disciplines, including conservation,
management, landscape ecology
•Population biology seeks to infer processes
and characteristics of groups of organisms
from processes and characteristics of
individuals