Stocking a Fish Pond (ILAP)

A number of basic measurements are used in describing populations and populated communities. Among these are population density, abundance of particular species, distribution of species, population size, and population age structures. Ecologists call a total count of all humans in a population a census, but it is seldom possible to count every individual within a population. At best, ecologsits can look at a small portion of the population and make inferences about the whole. Environmental scientists use data like these as a baseline, for comparison to data taken after an environmental impact. A population estimate of a highly mobile species is usually done by the mark/recapture technique (also called the Lincoln-Peterson method). No tecnique for population estimation is foolproof, and many are biased (either underestimating or overestimating population sizes). So we generally want to calculate a confidence interval to estimate the population size.

Physical Concepts Examined:
1. Biological populations
2. Mark/recapture technique

Table of Contents:

SETTING THE SCENE

IN-CLASS MOTIVATING EXAMPLE/EXPERIMENT

SITUATION

REQUIREMENTS

SAMPLE SOLUTION

ABOUT THE AUTHORS