Population Dynamics

Populations are an essential unit in ecology, evolution, and conservation.  In this section, you will learn how tradeoffs among reproduction, survival, and growth lead to differences in organism growth, life history strategy, and ultimately population dynamics. You will also learn the limitations to population size, the major differences among population in regards to growth, range, and other traits, and use models to explain these ideas.  

You can learn more about population dynamics in chapters 45.1-45.4 of Biology and chapters 19.1-19.2 of Concepts of Biology from OpenStax.  For further exploration on the concepts of this section, read about the importance of sexual reproduction, the mating system in sexual animals, the debate between semelparity and iteroparity, and population limiting factors. You may also be interested in watching videos about the population pyramid, the longest animal migration, efforts to save the Florida panther, or the survival of the sea turtle.