Unit D Conclusion

Unit D Conclusion

In Unit D your inquiry involved learning to do the following:

• explain how populations can change over time
• describe the ways that members of a population can interact with each other and with members of other populations
• analyze quantitatively how populations change over time
• analyze the technologies used by society in controlling and managing populations

The major concepts you explored in this unit involved the biology of populations, as opposed to the biology of individuals. The focusing questions at the beginning of the unit have been answered in the 11 lessons. Beginning with the assistance of Hardy and Weinberg you learned to quantify the genetic structure of a population. Applying the Hardy-Weinberg Equation you looked at the conditions that cause populations to stay the same in equilibrium, or to change in microevolution.

Next, you looked at how members of a population interact, cooperate, compete, and defend themselves from members of their own species and others in their community; you also looked at the relationships that form between them to maximize survival. Similarly, you looked at how populations of species come and go from a community in the orderly replacement known as succession. Following this you learned about how populations grow, how growth is measured quantitatively, and how growth can be analyzed using different formulae.

You looked at ways that populations grow if introduced into a new environment you analyzed and what conditions and species characteristics promote exponential and logistic growth patterns. The reproductive strategies that organisms use to maximize their survival and achieve a given growth pattern were studied, and finally, you looked at several examples of the role of human activity in causing or preventing population change.