Title: Lecture 16: Insect Ecology - Insect Population Dynamics
Date: 2019-11-19 11:00
Tags: lecture


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A lecture on Semiochemicals originally scheduled for this time slot.
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## Exponential Growth

dN/dt = rN

where:

*  r is the intrinsic growth rate: (births - deaths)/N
*  N is the population size

[Exponential Growth (YouTube; 10 minutes)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6pcRR5Uy6w)

## Logistic Growth

dN/dt = rN((K-N)/K)

where:

* K is the carrying capacity, the maximum population size that can be sustained by the environment

[Logistic Growth (YouTube; 11 minutes)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXlyYFXyfIM)

* Building a simple computer model of logistic growth

## r and K Selection

* r selected organisms produce many offspring = a high reproduction rate (r)
* K selected organisms produce few offspring, but put significant resources into ensuring their survival

[r/K Selection(YouTube; 7 minutes)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu6ouKt9zhs)

## Simulating Coconut Rhinoceros Population Dynamics

[An interactive Jupyter notebook which explores coconut rhinoceros beetle is available here](https://notebooks.azure.com/n/fTohfbbUNNs/notebooks/crb_population_dynamics.ipynb).

## Lotka-Volterra Model of Interspecific Competition

The Lotka-Volterra model is used to calculate changes in the populations of two interacting populations
such as a predator and its prey, or an insect and its parasitoid.

[An interactive Jupyter notebook which explores the Lotka-Volterra model is available here.](https://notebooks.azure.com/n/fTohfbbUNNs/notebooks/Lotka-Volterra-Model.ipynb)

[Handout: Lotka-Volterra Model](/pdfs/Lotka-Volterra-Model.html)