Life history tables and survivorship curves

Name__________________Period_______

LIFE HISTORY TABLES AND SURVIVORSHIP CURVES

A. Comparing human survivorship curves.

1. One-hundred graves of people who died in the nineteenth century were randomly chosen from a graveyard in Knoxville in order to record the age of each individual when they died. I have organized the data by age class and indicated what additional information needs to be calculated on the chart on page two. The same procedure was followed in choosing 100 people who have died in this century, with that data on page three. From the completed charts, construct a survivorship curve using the midpoint of each age class to plot against log lx (survivorship).

Questions:

1. Compare the survivorship curves from the nineteenth century to those of the twentieth century. Cite specific data in your response.

2. Discuss why there are (or might be) differences in survivorship from one century to the next for a) newborn babies, b) individuals of child bearing years, c) adults in older age classes.

3. Discuss ecological implications of changes in survivorship for human population growth.

PRE-1900 p. 2

All data points are from deaths occurring prior to 1900. 100 graves were monitored.

*lx = proportion surviving to this age class

POST-1900 p.3

All data points are from deaths occurring after 1900. 100 graves were monitored.

*lx = proportion surviving to this age class