Lecture 7

October 20, 2008

• ecological succession
  • primary
  • secondary
  • disturbance
  • intermediate disturbance hypothesis
    • forest fires as a good example
    • link
    • cellular automata -http://www.eddaardvark.co.uk/fivecell/forest.html
      • start with default values then turn down to ignite more small fires (ignite =10^-4)that don't spread as much (spread = 0.6)
• key characteristics of a mature vs. immature ecosystems (relative to succession)
• stability and complexity

Concepts from Chapter 8:

• population distributions
• logistic growth model
  • exponential growth
  • carrying capacity
• regulation around the carring capacity
  • overshoot
  • damped oscillation
• boom and bust
• carrying capacity
• not in book- Logistic equation
• predator-prey interactions
• r or K selection

Discussion items:

1. Should we manage the predators in parks to increase local biodiversity (of birds or small mammals)?

2. The patterns of growth seen in simple populations are used as metaphors to suggest underlying mechanisms in other populations (such as humans) or communities.

the patterns:

• exponential
• resource limited and logistic model
• oscillation
• boom and bust
• predatory & prey

When is this legitimate?

What are the differences between a natural population or community and human populations?

3. How would you manage a fragile population that might possbily undergo "boom and bust" type dynamics?