Sorry for the delay, this should have been posted prior to Daniel's last post.

ECOLOGY:
There are four major factors of ecology
1. Sucession
2.Limiting Factors
3. Carrying Capacity
4. Trophic Levels

Ecology --> Study of the distibution and abundance of organisms, their interactions with other organisms, and their interactions with their environment.
- The niche of an organism describes the biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) resources in the environment used by an organism.

Population Ecology:
1.Size of population
2.Density of a population
3.Dispersion, how population is distributed
-clumped
-random
-uniformed
4.Age structure...description of the abundance of individuals of each age.
5.Surviviorship curve...mortality of individuals in a species varies during their lifetime.

Biotic Potential:
Maximum growth rate of a population under ideal conditions
-unlimited resources
-no growth restrictions
Contributions to biotic potential (what to look at)
-age at reproductive maturity
-clutch size
-frequency of reproduction
-reproductive lifetime
-survivorship of offspring to reproductive maturity

Limiting Factors:
Elements that prevent a population from attaining biotic potential
Density dependent factors are those agents who's limiting effect becomes more intense as population density increases
If too dense...
-parasites
-disease
-competition for resources
-toxic effect of waste product
-predation

Independent Factors:
Fires
Hurricanes

Growth of Population:

r = (births - deaths) / N
If deaths = Births than everything is constant.
D > B = - growth rate
B > D = + growth rate