Population Ecology
Population: Group of individuals of the same species that live in the same place
Population structure:
- random: little interaction among individuals or with environmental resource distribution; rare in nature
- uniform: often through resource competition
- patchy: through uneven distribution of resources; also social interaction
Population range: each species has a (geographically) limited area of occurrence, defined by physiological tolerances of each species
Ranges may change: climate change (ice/warm periods); overcome distribution barriers; destruction/change of habitat; transport (predominantly human ? mostly negative effect on native species and ecological balance)