Populations and Community Ecology

A population is a group of organisms of the same species living in the same area at the same time and able to interbreed. A community is all the populations of different species that interact within an ecosystem. Population ecology studies how and why the numbers of organisms change over time, which is central to understanding conservation, pest control, and the management of natural resources.

Population Growth Curves

When a small population colonizes a new, resource-rich environment, it often grows in an S-shaped (sigmoid) curve with three phases: - Exponential (log) phase: With abundant resources and few limiting factors, the population grows rapidly as birth rate greatly exceeds death rate. - Transitional phase: As numbers rise, resources become scarce and the growth rate slows. - Plat