Population Basics
What is population distribution?
How individuals in a population are spaced out. (Q1)
What type of growth curve is represented by a J-shaped graph?
What is exponential growth?
What is a density-dependent limiting factor? Give an example.
A factor that depends on population size, such as competition or disease. (Q4)
What are the three stages of demographic transition?
Stage I (high birth/death rates), Stage II (declining death rates), and Stage III (declining birth rates) (Q8)
What does it mean if a logistic growth graph flattens at the top?
It has reached carrying capacity
What is population density?
The number of individuals per unit area
What type of growth curve is represented by an S-shaped graph?
What is logistic growth?
What is a density-independent limiting factor? Give an example.
A factor that affects populations regardless of size, such as a hurricane or drought. (Q5)
What happens to population size in Stage II?
A significant increase due to declining death rates (Q9)
What does exponential growth suggest about limiting factors?
Limiting factors are not present
If a population’s birth rate equals its death rate and immigration equals emigration, what is the population doing?
Staying stable or reaching carrying capacity (Q12)
What event marks the transition from exponential to logistic growth?
What is the slowing of growth due to limiting factors or reaching carrying capacity?
A hurricane reduces a population of animals on an island. How is the hurricane classified?
A density-independent limiting factor. (Q6)
Which stage has most of human history occurred in?
Stages I and II (Q10)
On an age structure graph, what indicates a growing population?
A wide base showing more young individuals. (Q11)
How does population distribution differ from population density?
What is distribution describes spacing, while density describes the number of individuals per area?
Which type of growth is more sustainable long-term, and why?
logistic growth, because it accounts for resource limitations (Q3)
How can the availability of bamboo lead to a decline in the panda population?
A reduction in bamboo decreases the carrying capacity for pandas, possibly leading to extinction. (Q7)
Which data about a country’s population structure indicate growth or decline?
What conclusion can be made if a population graph shows constant fluctuations near a maximum value?
The population has reached carrying capacity. (Q12)
What type of data would a demographer analyze to predict population trends?
What are birth and death rates, age structure, and population size? (Q8 & Q11)
What typically happens to a population when it exceeds its carrying capacity?
What is it declines due to resource depletion or other limiting factors?
What would happen to hawks in an ecosystem where wolves and foxes are overhunted?
Their population may increase due to reduced competition
What is the main trend in Stage III of the demographic transition?
Stabilization as birth and death rates decline. (Q8)
How can predator and prey populations affect each other’s graphs
Their populations increase and decrease in cyclical patterns.