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Population size. In population genetics and population ecology, population size (usually denoted N) is a countable quantity representing the number of individual organisms in a population. Population size is directly associated with amount of genetic drift, and is the underlying cause of effects like population bottlenecks and the founder ...
Population. Population is the term typically used to refer to the number of people in a single area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the size of a resident population within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and plants, and has specific uses within such fields as ecology and genetics .
Population genetics. Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and among populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, and population structure. [1]
The effective population size ( Ne) is size of an idealised population would experience the same rate of genetic drift or increase in inbreeding as in the real population. Idealised populations are based on unrealistic but convenient assumptions including random mating, simultaneous birth of each new generation, constant population size.
The term population biology has been used with different meanings. In 1971, Edward O. Wilson et al. used the term in the sense of applying mathematical models to population genetics, community ecology, and population dynamics. [1] Alan Hastings used the term in 1997 as the title of his book on the mathematics used in population dynamics. [2]
Population size can be influenced by the per capita population growth rate (rate at which the population size changes per individual in the population.) Births, deaths, emigration, and immigration rates all play a significant role in growth rate. The maximum per capita growth rate for a population is known as the intrinsic rate of increase.
In population genetics, fixation is the change in a gene pool from a situation where there exists at least two variants of a particular gene ( allele) in a given population to a situation where only one of the alleles remains. That is, the allele becomes fixed. [1] In the absence of mutation or heterozygote advantage, any allele must eventually ...
Population dynamics has traditionally been the dominant branch of mathematical biology, which has a history of more than 220 years, [1] although over the last century the scope of mathematical biology has greatly expanded. [citation needed] The beginning of population dynamics is widely regarded as the work of Malthus, formulated as the ...