Study Guide for Test 5

1. What is ecology

2. Be able to explain the meaning of the following distributions: clumped, uniform, random, normal

3. Know how the mark/recapture method of estimating population size works. Be able to do math word problems describing this technique

4. Be able to calculate population growth rates, birth rates and death rates

5. What is the current human population, and how has the growth rate changed in the past

6. Be able to explain the factors that have affected infant mortality rates

7. What are density independent factors? What are density dependent factors?

8. What is carrying capacity, and what happens to populations that have reached it? What might happen if they pass it?

9. Be able to read population pyramids and predict how the population’s growth rate will change in the future

10. What is net primary productivity?

11. What factors can cause population crashes?