Tribolium Population Dynamics Proposal
Names: Samuel Higgins, Zach Kuban, Bryan Nguyen, Tejal Patel (Group 5)
BIOL 1442 Section: 12
Lab Instructor: Ashley Asmus
Intraspecific Competition in Populations of Tribolium castaneum and Tribolium confusum
RESEARCH QUESTION:
How does intraspecific competition between Tribolium affect population growth?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
A population is a group of species that live, interact, and interbreed in a geographic area. Intraspecific competition occurs when resources, which are necessary for a population, are limited and the individuals of the same species have to compete to survive. The Tribolium species reproduce at a rapid rate. The female lays 400-500 eggs that go through metamorphosis and within a few days, those adults are sexually mature and continue the reproduction process (Calderwood 1961).
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confusum have divergent behavior patterns. During an experiment between competition over limiting food resources (flour), T. casteum exhibited more aggression by eating their own larvae (Ho and Dawson 1966). Another experiment had similar results; after ten hours, 88% of T. confusum males and 33% females remained, and 2% of T. castaneum adults survived (Ghant 1966). The low population of T. castaneum is due to their cannibalistic nature. The purpose of conducting this experiment with the variable of different species is to determine whether or not there is more intraspecific competition in T. castaneum. In order to accomplish this, both populations of the Tribolium species will be measured over
We observed Sowbugs in multiple environments to determine which environment they preferred. The observational chamber was a rectangle box split equally in half. One side of this rectangle was filled with dry sand that had been heated for five minutes by a lamp, and the other side was filled with damp soil that did not receive the lamp heat. We placed each sowbug on the middle boarder of the cool, damp soil and the hot, dry sand. We each chose one sowbug to track, and made a record of its placement each minute for five minutes total. We repeated this process three times. After each repetition, we removed the sowbugs, and replaced them with new sowbugs to observe. After this observation, we shared, and recorded our results. The sowbugs spent
To conduct the experiment, the beetles were massed, then attached to a petri dish with a 30 centimeter piece of dental floss. The beetle’s mass was the independent variable. Afterwards, the floss was tied to the beetle’s midsection with a slip knot. Then, the beetle was placed on a piece of fabric with the petri dish attached to it. As soon as the beetle was able to move with one paperclip inside the petri dish, more were added, one by one, until it could not move any further. After the beetle could not pull any more, the paperclips were massed and the results were recorded. The dependent variable was the mass that the beetles could pull. No control group was included in this experiment.
Abstract: The house cricket, Acheta domesticus, was used to test whether food and potential mates drive aggressive behavior. Male crickets were randomly selected in pairs and place into a cage to observe aggressive behaviors in the presence of no food, food, and female. The cage provided a confine area for the crickets to fight one another while the variables of food and female were used in attempts of increasing aggressive interactions between the male crickets. There was no significance found through this experiment due to a lack of data. It was discovered that the experiment would have to be done at a larger scale to be able to see any significance in the two variables.
The experiment was conducted to test three different variables. These variables are an assessment of female aggressiveness, food deprivation, and staged male to female interactions. When testing the female aggressiveness, virgin females were run through a latency of attack assay to determine their aggressiveness. The spiders were given 30 seconds and a cricket was dropped in and a measurement was taken of how long interaction occurred between the cricket and the spider. When testing food deprivation, the number of days that female spiders went without food varied and was paired in groups of 1, 3, and 5 days for routine feeding. It was predicted that the longer female spiders went without food, the hungrier they would be. When testing staged male and female interactions, the males were placed in female containers with open lids as an escape route. Each pair interacted for six hours and all pairs resulted in successful copulation, sexual cannibalism, or the male abandons the female’s web. All instances of cannibalism were precopula and occurred shortly after males initiated their courtship sequence. After interaction, the remaining males were taken out the female web and females that cannibalized a male were given 24 hours to feed on the male before being given another male. A female never cannibalized two males consecutively. It was concluded that females that attacked prey more rapidly were more likely to cannibalize their first male mate. There is no detection of an association between cannibalism or food deprivation and female’s body mass. There is a positive association between the mass of egg cases and the number of offspring in females. The study proved that two factor are important in sexual cannibalism, female hunger state and female aggressiveness. There is also a source of fitness benefit for the female.
The titmouse is a small songbird that searches acrobatically for insects among foliage and branches. The tufted titmouse, also known by their scientific name of baeolophus bicolor, is a widespread species from North America. Because the species is so widespread, it can be assumed that the species is not limited by the biotic and abiotic factors that other species are limited by. The titmouse eats only insects in the summer, including caterpillars, beetles, ants, wasps, stink bugs, and treehoppers; they also eat seeds, nut, and berries. However, every population, or a group of individuals of a single species living in the same general areas, is limited by a carrying capacity, or the maximum population size that a particular environment can sustain. At one point, the biotic or abiotic factors will limit the dispersion and dispersal of the
... middle of paper ... ... Pike, Robert M. 2013. "The Species of the World."
Females like to choose mates who have very bright colors as it is a sign of the male’s good health and vigor. The natural and sexual selection can affect populations in three ways: directional (environmental conditions change in a consistent direction; one extreme of phenotypes is favored), stabilizing (environmental conditions are relatively constant; intermediate phenotype is favored), and disruptive selection (environment has more than one type of useful resource; both extremes of phenotypes are favored). An example of directional selection is pesticide resistance since only the insects with a resistance are favored; an example of stabilizing selection is that the smallest lizards have a difficulty defending their territory whereas the largest lizards are most likely to be eaten by owls; an example of disruptive selection are the black-bellied seedcrackers since they either have a large beak (which they can use to eat had seeds), or a small beak (which allows them to eat soft seeds). Disruptive selection shows a balanced polymorphism, which is when two or more phenotypes are maintained in a
Competition is always over the supply of a limited resource. There are two types of competition: intraspecific and interspecific. Intraspecific is competition between the same species. This is usually beneficial to the species as a whole because it results in the best fit organism. Interspecific is competition between different species and is known to be detrimental to both species. There are three principles that apply to competition. Competition exclusion principle is when two species live together and occupy the same niche and eventually one species will out compete the other and replace it in that environment. The second principle is niche overlap which means that when two species live together over a large area one species will replace the other in part of that area. The last principle, character displacement, is when two species live together and initially occupy the same niche they may evolve to become different over time in order to avoid competition. When more than one species occupy the same niche and are very similar it is common for one of them to become specialized in that area. For example if two birds are eating the same food one may develop a different beak over time in order to hunt for a different food.
A different scenario takes place when an alien species is transported to a new area. Although direct competition with similar species is still a problem, the new kid in the block may have no natural pests and diseases. Thus, large stands of monocultures can occur. It is generally accepted that one plant species will support 10 species of animals. If one species takes over 99% of a given habitat dozens if not hundreds of species are lost from that area and some populations are stressed enough that extinction is possible.
Humans have greatly impacted the global environment. Throughout the course of history, human populations have rapidly increased. Especially in Africa, these numbers have reached extraordinary proportions. Out of all the continents in the world, Africa’s population is increasing the most. The type of growth here is exponential. “Overpopulation is a condition when an organisms numbers exceeds the carrying of its ecological niche.” The growth rate of a population is equal to the birth rate minus the death rate. Therefore, for overpopulation to occur, the birth rate must surpass the death rate (Wiley). The current population of Nigeria is estimated to be 155,215,573. Most of the population consists of the younger generation. More specifically, 41% of the population is between the ages of 0-14. 56% of the population is between the ages of 15-64. However, only 3.1% of the population is 65 and over. This age group represents a very small part of the population. (CIA)
of species due to a variety of causes. Included is out competition, depletion of resources
Southwick, C. H. (1996). "Chapter 15: Human Populations." Global Ecology in Human Perspective. Oxford University Press, 159-182.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau once said, “Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today” (“Population,” Internet). With the current statistics, Jacques could not be more accurate. Every second, 4.2 people are born and 1.8 people die, which would be a net gain of 2.4 people per second (“Population,” Internet). At this steady rate, the environmental health is spiraling downwards, and it is safe to assume humans are responsible for this. As the population increases, harmful effects on the land, water, and air also do.
Seventh, in some groups of insects, truly social behavior has evolved. Social behavior will allow a large population to survive through difficult periods via cooperation in food gathering, food storage, temperature control, and colony
Our world is too small for our ever rapidly growing population. One day resources will run dry and vanish, which will bring death and loss to all nations on this planet. Many researchers and scientists have confirmed that the population will reach 10 billion by the end of the century and will continue to stream upward. There are many different ways in trying to decrease population to contain global warming and assist our environmental changes. The only way to steadily succeeding, families must be the regulators of their fertility and future. Environmentalism can head in a negative direction, which may result in population control and even anti-immigrant policies. Can the developing effort of ‘population integrity’ protect our world while recognizing birth moralities?