I understand most of the pervious information, but I got lost during this part of the reading. How do we use the matrix to calculate what we are looking for?

This paragraph make is clear the role of R being part of the term (b-d), the rats of the birth and deaths in a population. This was confusing to understand in the pervious section 7.1. I was unsure what R was in the last section. This paragraph does a better job explaining it.

Can you explain more what does R= b-d the calculation? I'm unsure how R effects Nt+1.

It is interesting to see how different groups survivorship is affected differently across multiple variables. Age is not one I would have thought play a major affect in their survivorship.

I kind of confused on the differences between the static and cohort life tables. Is the difference between the two is that the static tables look at the population counts at different times and the cohort at a set time?

Animals that devote their energy to parental care has important impact on the development of the offspring later on. For example, rat material care is important for the helping the anxiety levels and behavior of the rat offsprings. When they the offspring get more material care, like licks, can help reduce anxiety in the rats compared to rats who did not get material care. Their behavior is more different and they are more anxious.

How do scientist make sure that they are not over estimating or under estimating the population they are observing? What do they check for to see if these estimations are occurring? Is this based on variables that were already considered about the area before the observations started.

Can you give a better example for this term? I still unsure how this term relates to biodiversity.

The changes of the atmosphere due to large amount of carbon dioxide being release should be a major policy concern for many countries who can help reduce the output of carbon dioxide. The rising of the heat in the atmosphere and the change the world's climate is leading to changes in different ecosystems and communities. This can lead to loss of biodiversity over time.

Family size has a greater influence than I thought in the survival of a species. It can contribute to genes for the next generation depending how each organisms contribute to the gene pool. The amount of energy in reproduction and amount of care after affects if the phenotypes that best help with survival make it to the next generation.

Can you provide an example of a population going through genetic drift? I know It occurs randomly but I would like to see how it looks like in a population.

What are the various methods used or are common to collect data on adaptations in a population within their local environment?

It is interesting how Darwin and Wallace were able to draw similar conclusion through their observations and build on it through others works too. However, Darwin is the one we hear and learn the most from. Also, the way they collected their data and made their observations are important in how they grew their field.

The lucky outcomes in experiments are also influenced by the careful collections of observations and how the data is later interpreted. Without Fleming carefully collecting data he would not have seen how the mold affected his cultures.

In heterospecific interactions, what are some examples that show how a species try to compete with other species for limited resources.