 | Population Ecology Test |
Questions and Assignments to Lecture 1
1.1. What is the relationship between population ecology and community ecology, landscape ecology, systems ecology, population genetics, and population biology (describe common problems and major differences)?
1.2. Can you define what is a "good" model and what is a "bad" model? Be careful in your definitions: it may happen that the class of "good" models will be empty!
1.3. What is a population and a population system?
1.4. What ecological characteristics of organisms change during the life cycle? Consider several examples: a bacteria, insect, mammal, and a plant.
1.5. What are ecological differences between males and females? 1.6. Is it possible to find similarity in variability?
1.7. Describe elements of the temporal and spatial structures in a population system.
1.8. Why factor-effect models are not appropriate for studying population systems?
1.9. Describe a population system that you wish to study in the future (it may be a natural or a laboratory population). Specify factors and processes and their interactions. Draw a diagram with factors in rectangles and processes in ovals, show interactions with arrows.
1.10. Draw a Petri net for a 3-level trophic interactions: an autotrophic population (algae or plant) consumes several mineral components from soil (or water), the second population feeds on that autotrophic population, and the third population feeds on the second one. All three populations should grow in numbers.
2.1. What is population density?
2.3. What is correlogram?
2.4. Density of the Colorado potato beetle should be estimated with accuracy A = 0.1 (10%). Preliminary sampling (N = 30) indicated: M = 0.5 beetles/plant, SD = 0.9 beetles/plant. How many additional samples you need?
2.6. Sampling of the European pine sawfly was performed separately within 1 m radius around trees and outside of these circles using 0.25 sq.m. squares:
Stratum % area No. of samples Mean SD
Near trees 30 40 32 18
Far from trees 70 20 12 7
Estimate average sawfly density and its standard error in the entire area
2.7. Estimate the size of the population of perch in a pond from capture-recapture data: 284 fish were netted, marked and released; 1392 fish were caught after 2 days, and 86 of them were found to be marked. (use Lincoln index)
3.1. How to distinguish among the regular, random and aggregated spatial distributions of organisms?
3.2. How to estimate distribution parameters using the method of moments?
3.3. Colorado potato beetles were counted on 30 potato plants, and there was no significant difference between the actual distribution of beetles and both poisson and negative binomial theoretical distributions. How to decide if their distribution is random or aggregated? If additional sampling is required, then how to determine the additional number of samples?
3.4. Taylor''s power law for the number of fleas on rats is: ln(s ) = 0.1 + 1.5 ln(m). Total 17 fleas were found on 10 rats. How many rats should be examined to estimate flea abundance with a 10% accuracy?
3.5. What is the relation between the correlogram, covariance function, and variogram?
3.1. How to distinguish among the regular, random and aggregated spatial distributions of organisms?
3.2. How to estimate distribution parameters using the method of moments?
3.3. Colorado potato beetles were counted on 30 potato plants, and there was no significant difference between the actual distribution of beetles and both poisson and negative binomial theoretical distributions. How to decide if their distribution is random or aggregated? If additional sampling is required, then how to determine the additional number of samples?
3.4. Taylor''s power law for the number of fleas on rats is: ln(s ) = 0.1 + 1.5 ln(m). Total 17 fleas were found on 10 rats. How many rats should be examined to estimate flea abundance with a 10% accuracy?
3.5. What is the relation between the correlogram, covariance function, and variogram?
3.8. Questions and Assignments to Lecture 3
3.1. How to distinguish among the regular, random and aggregated spatial distributions of organisms?
3.2. How to estimate distribution parameters using the method of moments?
3.3. Colorado potato beetles were counted on 30 potato plants, and there was no significant difference between the actual distribution of beetles and both poisson and negative binomial theoretical distributions. How to decide if their distribution is random or aggregated? If additional sampling is required, then how to determine the additional number of samples?
3.4. Taylor''s power law for the number of fleas on rats is: ln(s ) = 0.1 + 1.5 ln(m). Total 17 fleas were found on 10 rats. How many rats should be examined to estimate flea abundance with a 10% accuracy?
3.5. What is the relation between the correlogram, covariance function, and variogram?
3.6. Estimate the fractal dimension of the "carpet of Serpinski"
