UNIT OVERVIEW

Why do locust swarms appear some years and not others? Why do conservationists debate elephant numbers in Kruger National Park? Population ecology helps us answer these questions.

A population is a group of organisms of the same species living in the same area at the same time. Population ecology studies how and why population numbers change over time.

In this unit, you will learn:

• What makes populations grow or shrink
• How to read and draw population growth curves
• How species interact with each other (predator-prey, competition, symbiosis)
• How to estimate population size using scientific methods
• How human population growth affects the environment