Exponential growth model of weevil populations: a didactic experiment for undergraduate course of Population Ecology
| Autor: | Maria Eduarda de Jesus Bomfim, Claudiane de Lima Braz, Vanderléia dos Santos Conceição, Nayara Oliveira Dias, Francielen da Silva Dias, Elton dos Santos Freitas, Paloma Regina Peixoto de Jesus, Verônica Santos de Jesus, Roberto da Silva Dourado Junior, Vitor Castor Modesto, Joanna Karine Gomes de Oliveira, Tainara da Silva Pereira, Diana Souza Trindade Rocha, Stefane de Jesus Sacramento, Roseane Souza Sampaio, Ana Caroline de Souza Santos, Glaucio dos Santos Silva, Joseane Conceição da Silva, Stheffy Hevhelling Vila Verde Souza, Guilherme de Oliveira |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2024 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Acta Scientiarum: Biological Sciences, Vol 46, Iss 1 (2024) |
| Druh dokumentu: | article |
| ISSN: | 1679-9283 1807-863X |
| DOI: | 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v46i1.69261 |
| Popis: | Exponential model for population growth (exponential model) is a foundation to evaluate population dynamics in Population Ecology field. Here, we used a didactic experiment to teach exponential model for an undergraduate course of Population Ecology. We built nine populations of weevils with three different initial population sizes: eight, 16, and 32 individuals with three replicates each. We provided equal food resource availability, and counted their population sizes weekly for 12 weeks. We estimated the intrinsic growth rate (i.e., r parameter), by trials and errors with an exponential model build in an Excel spreadsheet. The population growth rate (i.e., dN/dt parameter) was estimated using r values. Replicates with eight and 16 individuals reached the highest values of r and dN/dt, while replicates with 32 individuals reached the lowest values. Beyond of exponential model, two density dependency issues acting in populations were observed. First, in the lowest initial population sizes we observed the effect of demographic stochasticity acting in both r and dN/dt in one of the three populations. Second, we observed the intraspecific competition reducing r values in largest initial populations. Therefore, we highlight the importance of didactic experiment into learning exponential model in Population Ecology course, both for teaching and learning practices. |
| Databáze: | Directory of Open Access Journals |
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