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The marmorated pocket gopher is a large rodent that lives in southwest North America and northern Mexico. This species occupies low-lying arid grasslands and rocky hillsides. Researchers want to determine if climate change is affecting lowland versus hillside populations differently.
On the first trip to the grassland habitat, 250 marmorated gophers were captured and marked. On a second trip a month later, 255 gophers were captured, of which 13 were already marked. Estimate the population size of the grassland gophers. Show all calculations. Round off to the nearest whole gopher. (2 pts.)
On a different research trip to the rocky hillside habitat, 247 gophers were captured and marked. On a return trip to the hillside, 142 were captured, of which 15 had already been marked. Estimate the population of the hillside-marmorated gophers. Show all calculations. Round off to the nearest whole gopher. (2 pts.)
In a second survey the following year, scientists estimated the populations at 7,200 grassland gophers and 1,636 hillside gophers. What is the growth rate of the grassland population? Show all calculations. Give answer to 3 decimal places. (2 pts.)
What is the growth rate of the hillside population? Show all calculations. Give answer to 3 decimal places. (2 pts.)
Scientists recently located a third population of marmorated gophers on a high plateau. The original population survey captured and marked 200 plateau gophers, then later re-captured 189, of which 130 were marked. How big is the population of plateau gophers? Show all calculations. Round off to the nearest whole animal. (2 pts.)
In the second season following this initial discovery, scientists established the plateau population was 277 gophers. What is the growth rate of the plateau population? Show all calculations. Give answer to 3 decimal places.
Which marmorated gopher populations are growing?
Calculate the population size of the grassland, hillside, and plateau populations in 5 years . Show all calculations. Round off to the nearest whole marmorated gopher.
Grassland:
Hillside:
Plateau:
Based on your estimated population trends, which population is at greatest risk? Explain. (2 pts.)
Consider the following life table of data for an Australian lizard species.
Age
(X) Mortality rate
(Qx ) Survivorship
(Lx) Birth rate
(Bx)
1 0.452 0.101 0
2 0.117 0.051 0.178
3 0.163 0.041 0.915
4 0.163 0.034 0.915
5 0.163 0.029 0.915
6 0.163 0.024 0.915
7 0.163 0.02 0.915
8 0.163 0.017 0.915
9 0.163 0.014 0.915
10 0.163 0.012 0.915
11 0.163 0.01 0.915
12 0.163 0.008 0.915
13 0.163 0.007 0.915
14 0.163 0.006 0.915
15 0.163 0.005 0.915
16 0.163 0.004 0.915
17 0.163 0.003 0.915
18 0.163 0.002 0.915
19 0.163 0.001 0.915
What is the net reproductive rate of this population? Show calculations, give answer out to 3 decimal points.
What is the population trend for this population of lizards? How do you know? Explain.(2 pts.)
