Population ecologists follow the fate of same-age cohorts to
a. d...

Question

Population ecologists follow the fate of same-age cohorts to
a. determine a population’s carrying capacity.
b. determine the birth rate and death rate of each group in a population.
c. determine if a population is regulated by density-dependent processes.
d. determine the factors that affect the size of a population.

Accepted Answer

Hi everyone. Let's look at our next question. Population ecologists construct life tables too and then it gives us four different choices for the purpose and the usefulness of a life table. So let's recall from our content video the definition of life table. And this would be a table that shows for each age what is the probability probability t of survival Another year or 2? The next birthday? So let's look at our answer choices and see what makes sense. Choice A. Says determine age specific mortality and survival within a population. Well this table would tell you that because at each age you say what's the probability of survival for another year? Which would also tell you what's the probability of death at that age? And so choice A. Is what you would use A life Table 4 to determine age specific mortality and survival within a given population. Let's just walk through the other choices and see why they are not correct. Choice B says determined reproduction rate of population. Well that would be the rate at which one generation whether the next generation will be larger or smaller than the previous generation. Um That doesn't have anything to do with life table which is just looking at probability of survival at ages of individuals. Not anything about those individuals. Reproducing choice B is not correct. Choice C. Says determine the distribution pattern of individuals and population. This would be you know how many individuals in the population are at different ages. But a life table doesn't tell us that. It just says for each age how likely is an individual to survive another year? So doesn't tell us how many individuals are at each different age, So Choice D. C. Also not correct Choice D. Says, determine the population density. Population density is how a population is spread out over a given area in space. So again, nothing to do with our life tables here, so Choice D. Not correct. So our correct answer. A population ecologists construct life tables to determine age specific mortality and survival. Thanks for watching. See you next time.

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