The Biological population or Population of animals is a group of organisms of the same species that share a habitat and that can be quantified in an exact or approximate way.
Biological populations may change over time due to births, deaths and diasporas (the dispersal of individuals in the population).
Pack of wolves.
Also, when food is available in the environment and conditions are appropriate, biological populations can increase significantly.
Animal populations, as well as individual organisms, have attributes that differentiate them from other populations, including:
1 - Growth rate.
2 - Birth rate.
3 - Mortality rate.
4 - Biotic potential, which refers to the maximum capacity of populations to increase when conditions are conducive to them.
In this sense, animal populations depend on certain limiting factors that may affect organisms, such as the availability of food and water. In biology , These factors are called"environmental resistance".
All aspects of biological populations, their genetic composition, their relationships with other populations and the factors that affect them, are studied by the genetics of populations, Branch of biology .
Interaction between the animal population and the other populations of an ecosystem
Animal populations interact with each other and, in turn, interact with other populations, as with plants. Such interactions can be of various types, with consumption being one of the main ones.
For example, there are populations of animals that consume plants as a source of food; These animals are called herbivores.
Similarly, there are various types of herbivores: those who consume grass are called grazers, those who consume the leaves of the plants are known as foliophages, while those who feed on the fruits are called frugivores.
On the other hand, populations of animals that feed on other animals are called predators, and populations consumed by predators are called prey.
The relationship between predators and prey is curious because when the population of prey increases, that of predators does the same until the prey decreases. Likewise, if the number of prey decreases, the number of predators will also decrease.
Other relationships among populations are competition, parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism . Competition between populations is a concept that refers to the fact that two species that require the same elements to survive can not coexist in the same habitat.
The reasoning behind this concept is that one of the two species will have greater possibilities of adaptation to the habitat, reason why it will prevail, excluding the other competing species.
For their part, parasitism, commensalism and mutualism are symbiotic relationships. In parasitism, a parasite and a host intervene; In this relationship, the parasite is the only one that benefits, while the host is adversely affected.
In commensalism, one species benefits while the other is not affected positively or negatively. Finally, in mutualism, the two species involved are influenced by the relationship.
Remora and shark, example of commensalism
Birds and flowers, an example of mutualism.
The biological population and the limiting factors
The various biological populations connect together as in a puzzle, which means that a population depends on the stability of another population and vice versa.
In nature, there are several factors that can affect this stability, such as the availability of adequate habitats, water and food, competition among various populations, the existence of predators and diseases.
These factors can be classified into two groups: those produced by humans (such as the destruction of natural habitats to build houses and buildings) and those produced by nature (such as the existence of predators).
Types of populations
Biological populations can be classified into four types according to the relationship between the members of the population, namely: family populations, colonial populations, gregarious populations and state populations.
1 - Family Populations
As its name implies, family populations are composed of individuals joined by a kinship bond. An example of a family population is a herd of lions.
2 - Colonial populations
Colonial populations are composed of two or more individuals connected to each other. In this sense, colonies are clusters of identical cellular organisms linked to a primitive organism, as with coral reefs or jellyfish.
Jellyfish.
Corals.
3 - Gregarious populations
Gregarious populations are those that conform during migrations or mobilizations of individuals.
P In general, members of these populations do not share kinship ties. Examples of this type of population are the flocks of birds, the banks of fish and some insects that travel in group.
Storks.
4 - State Populations
State populations are those that have divisions among members with respect to the role of each individual in the population.
Insects are the only ones that are organized in state populations; For example, in bees, is the differentiation between the queen, the workers and the drones.
Bees.
The genetics of populations and the animal population
Genetics of populations, also known as population biology, is a field of biology that studies the genetic makeup of animal populations as well as changes that occur as a product of various factors, such as natural selection.
In this sense, population genetics is directly related to the study of evolution, so it is often considered as a theoretical branch of modern Darwinism.
References
- Population. Retrieved on May 24, 2017, from nhptv.org.
- Animal Population. Retrieved on May 24, 2017, from encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com.
- What is the biological definition of population? Retrieved on May 24, 2017, from socratic.org.
- Population Biology Basics. Retrieved on May 24, 2017, from thoughtco.com.
- Colony (biology). Retrieved on May 24, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org.
- Population genetics. Retrieved on May 24, 2017 from plato.stanford.edu.
- Population genetics. Retrieved on May 24, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org.
- Population genetics. Retrieved on May 24, 2017, from le.ac.uk.