Monday, May 19, 2014

EcoBlog Virtual Ecology

Population Genetics
Population genetics is the study of the distribution  and the changes of allele frequency in a population. The population is subjected to four processes in order to determine the changes within their population, the processes are natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, and gene flow. It also takes factors like recombination and population structure into account when determining the change in allele frequency. The Hardy Weinberg Equation is used to determine the changes in allele frequencies.

Population Ecology
Population ecology deals with the dynamics of species population and how these populations interact with the environment and their surroundings. Population is the study of how the sizes of the population of different species change over time. Thomas Malthus stated that a population will grow or decline exponentially as long as the environment experienced by all individuals in the population remains at a constant.

Community Ecology
Community ecology is the study of the interactions between species within a community on many different scales such as distribution, abundance, and structure. It is the study of factors that influence biodiversity, the community's structure and the abundance and distribution of species within a community. Some of the ways that species interact are through competition, predation, parasitism and mutualism.

Behavioral Ecology
Behavioral ecology is the study of evolution of animals and their behaviors due to ecological pressures.If an organism has a trait which provides them with a advantage in a new environment, natural selection will likely favor it. This theory of natural selection by Charles Darwin. Adaptive significance therefore refers to the beneficial qualities, in terms of increased survival and reproduction. Genetic differences in individuals lead to behavioral differences that in turn drive differences in adaptation, reproductive success, and ultimately evolution.

Conservation Ecology
Conservation ecology is the study of the loss of Earth’s biological diversity and the ways this loss can be prevented. It is aimed to protect species, and their habitats, and their ecosystems from the excessive rates of extinction and biological interactions. To better understand the restoration of ecosystems of native plants and animal communities conservation ecology leads to the researching of migration, demographics, effective population size, inbreeding rates and population viability.

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