What is usually true of exponential growth? Select True or False for each statement.

T/F The population is growing.

T/F The per capita growth rate is constant.

T/F The per capita growth rate increases rapidly over time.

T/F The per capita growth rate is very high.

In what populations does exponential growth tend to occur?

a. Populations that colonize new habitats

b. Populations that experience intense competition

c. Populations that experience high rates of predation

d. Populations that have surpassed their carrying capacity

If most individuals in a population are young, why is the population likely to grow rapidly in the future?

a. Death rates will be low.

b. The population has a skewed age distribution.

c. Immigration and emigration can be ignored.

d. Many individuals will begin to reproduce soon.

Why is there a trade-off between survivorship and fecundity?

Which of the following species is most likely to have a Type III survivorship curve?

a. Humans, Homo sapiens

b. Common lizards, Zootoca vivipara

c. Thale cress plants, Arabidopsis thaliana

d. Lynx cats, Lynx canadensis

Pose a hypothesis to explain why the human population has undergone especially rapid growth over the past 200 years. Describe two examples of density-dependent factors that limit human population growth. Is it possible that humans have surpassed Earth's carrying capacity?

Explain why biologists want to maintain (a) 'habitat corridors' that connect populations in a metapopulation, and (b) unoccupied habitat that is appropriate for the species in question.

Indicate what is correct and incorrect about this statement: If lizards want to survive during climate change, they can evolve new life-history traits.

When wild plant and animal populations are logged, fished, or hunted, only the oldest or largest individuals tend to be taken. Many of the commercially important species are long lived and are slow to begin reproducing. If harvesting is not regulated carefully and exploitation is intense, what impact does harvesting have on a population's age structure? How might harvesting affect the population's life table and growth rate?

Predict the possible consequences of global warming to the net reproductive rate of sea turtles given that the sex ratio of many sea turtles and other reptiles is determined by the temperature of the eggs in the nest; typically, warmer eggs become female and cooler eggs become male.

Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are constricting snakes that can reach enormous sizes (up to 7 meters in length). They are native to Southeast Asia but were released into southern Florida from the pet trade. Many other snakes occur naturally in this area. Are the introduced pythons a problem? Burmese pythons were first found in the wetlands of Everglades National Park in the 1980s, but only rarely. The accompanying graph shows what happened next. Most of the data are derived from chance encounters of pythons on roads and intermittent search effort near roads (pythons are notoriously difficult to find). Despite the variability in search effort, what type of population growth best describes the trend in the data from 2000 to 2020? a. logistic b. exponential c. linear d. logarithmic

<Image>

Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are constricting snakes that can reach enormous sizes (up to 7 meters in length). They are native to Southeast Asia but were released into southern Florida from the pet trade. Many other snakes occur naturally in this area. Are the introduced pythons a problem?

Researchers hypothesize that the severe winter of 2010 caused the decline in the number of pythons encountered that year. Is cold weather typically a density-dependent factor or a density-independent factor? Explain the difference.

<Image>

Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are constricting snakes that can reach enormous sizes (up to 7 meters in length). They are native to Southeast Asia but were released into southern Florida from the pet trade. Many other snakes occur naturally in this area. Are the introduced pythons a problem?

The data in the graph show the number of pythons that were encountered, not the total number of pythons in the population. Design a mark–recapture experiment to estimate the total population size of pythons, and list at least two assumptions you would be making in your experiment.

<Image>

Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are constricting snakes that can reach enormous sizes (up to 7 meters in length). They are native to Southeast Asia but were released into southern Florida from the pet trade. Many other snakes occur naturally in this area. Are the introduced pythons a problem?

A life table would help researchers make predictions about python population growth. If you were to track a cohort of pythons over time to construct a detailed life table, what kind of data would you want to collect?

Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are constricting snakes that can reach enormous sizes (up to 7 meters in length). They are native to Southeast Asia but were released into southern Florida from the pet trade. Many other snakes occur naturally in this area. Are the introduced pythons a problem? Pythons are generalist predators, consuming more than 75 species of prey including frogs, mice, rabbits, squirrels, porcupines, raccoons, leopards, deer, monkeys, alligators, and birds ranging from wrens to herons. Some surveys showed the disappearance of some animals, such as rabbits and opossums, from areas with pythons. Do you think food availability limits, or could limit, the carrying capacity of Burmese pythons in the Everglades?

<Image>

Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are constricting snakes that can reach enormous sizes (up to 7 meters in length). They are native to Southeast Asia but were released into southern Florida from the pet trade. Many other snakes occur naturally in this area. Are the introduced pythons a problem?

The range of Burmese pythons in Florida is expanding rapidly. List at least one abiotic factor and one biotic factor that might limit the range of pythons.