EKO/EKPO Population Ecology

Lecturer: Emil Tkadlec
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Credits: 3
Winter semester
Form of course completion: exam

Population system and its components, conditions, resources. Variability of populations and mechanisms maintaining genetic variation (microevolution). Geographic variability. Quantifying processes in population, migration, dispersal, dormancy. Demography, age structure, life tables, survivorship curves, population projections. Density-independent population growth, intrinsic rate of population increase. Euler-Lotka equation. Sexual structure and variation in sex ratio. Density-dependent population growth, patterns of population dynamics, time delay in density-dependence. Regulation, delayed regulation, negative feedback, feedback mechanism. Intraspecific competition, cooperation (Allee effect), overcompensating mortality. Maximum sustainable yield. Interspecific competition, Lotka-Volterra model, competitive exclusion principle. Predation, Lotka-Volterra model, functional and numerical response, aggregation response. Prey defence, cryptic and aposematic colouration, mimicry. Dynamics of natural populations, population cycles. Metapopulation.