Population and Community Ecology:
Revision Notes

Compiled as a third-year student at the University of Edinburgh, based on the information given in lectures.
General points are shown in normal font; specific examples are given in italics.

Exponentially growing populations

Discrete time model

Continuous time model

(appropriate for organisms such as bacteria)

Variability in population growth rate

 

Population dynamics and competition

Regulation of population growth

Time model

Time delays

Maximum sustainable yield (MSY)

Allee effect

Intraspecific competition

Interspecific competition

 

Predators and prey

Predator-prey dynamics

Predator functional response

 

Mutualism

 

Metapopulation dynamics

Source-sink dynamics

Levin's-type metapopulation dynamics

Model of metapopulation dynamics

 

Crop diseases

The monomolecular model of disease progress

The logistic model of disease progress

Disease management

The power law model of disease progress

The exponential model of disease progress

Spatial patterns of disease

 

Weed populations

Crop response to weed infestation

Spatial patterns of weed infestation

 

Communities

Describing communities

Measures of alpha-diversity (diversity within communities)

Measures of beta-diversity (diversity between communities)

Food webs

Species-area relationship

Predation in communities

Trophic cascades

Landscapes

Disturbances

Plant communities

Plant succession

More notes and essays

© Andrew Gray, 2004