All organisms live within a specific physical and biological environment. Their structure and feeding habits are inseparably associated with their surroundings and the surroundings of an organism represent its environment.
A population is a group of organisms of the same species that inhabit a geographical area at a given, share or compete for similar resources, and are interbreed in nature producing fertile offspring. Although the term interbreeding is applied to sexual reproduction, a group of individuals produced by even asexual reproduction is considered a population.
A local population of organisms in a specific area is also called a deme.
Population Control Meaning
Population control meaning is the procedure or the technique used to control and maintain the type, location, and several people that inhabit the earth.
Characteristics of Population
A population has certain characteristics that an individual organism does not have –
- Birth and Death Rates
Individuals have births and deaths, but a population has a birth rate and death rate. In a population, birth and death rates refer to per capita births and deaths respectively. The birth and death rates express a change in number, i.e., increase or decrease concerning members of the population.
Population control examples, if in a pond there were 20 Lotus plants last year and they reproduced to add 8 new plants taking the current population to 28, the birth rate of Lotus plants will be 8/20 =0.4 off per lotus per year.
- Sex ratio
The sex ratio denotes the number of males and females in a population. An individual is either a male or female, but a population has a sec ratio of males and females. However, in humans, the proportion of females of reproductive age, i.e, 15-45 years is the most important as it controls the birth rate within a population.
- Age Composition
The age composition or distribution is the relative number of organisms of various age groups in a population. Ecologically, a population has three age groups – pre-reproductive, reproductive, and post-reproductive. It depends upon age distribution, there are three kinds of populations –
- Expanding or Growing Population
It has a high birth rate and low death rate. There is more number of young individuals in the population
- Stable or Stationary Population
It has equal birth and death rates. Such a population shows zero population growth.
- Declining Population
It has a higher death rate than the birth rate. The population here is young ones is lower than the old members.
- Population Density
Population density represents the number of biomass of a species per unit area or volume at a given time. The area is used for land organisms and volume for aquatic ones.
The measure of population density can be determined by the generalised formula.
Population Density = (No. Of individuals in a population)/ (Area occupied)
There are two ways of expressing the population density – crude density and ecological density. The crude density is the total number of individuals or biomass per unit area or total volume. Ecological density is the number of individuals of a species inhabiting an ecological area or volume.
- Population Growth
The size of a population for any species is not static. It keeps changing over time, depending on various factors including food availability, space, predation pressure, and prevailing weather. These changes that take place due to the above-mentioned factors give an idea of what is happening to the population whether it is flourishing or flourishing. Whatever might be the ultimate reading during a given period, the population in a given habitat fluctuates due to changes in four basic processes: they, nationality, and immigration contribute to an increase in population density, and the rest two mortality and emigration, decrease the population.
- Natality
It is the number of births during a given period in a population that is added to the initial density. Natality increases the density of the population.
- Mortality
It is the number of deaths in a population during a given period. It decreases the density of the population.
- Immigration
It is the number of individuals of the same species that enter the habitat from outside during the period under consideration. It increases the density of the population.
- Emigration
It is the number of individuals of the population who leave the habitat and go elsewhere during the period under consideration. This reduces the density of the population.
Conclusion
Therefore, ecology is a branch of biology that deals with the study of interactions and interrelationships between organisms with their environment. Their structure along with their feeding habitats are completely associated with their surroundings and what environment they represent. The true meaning of population control is a methodological way of maintaining a specific technique to control and constrict the number of people in a particular habitat on earth.