Population is a group of the same kind sharing a place and time, like frogs in a pond, so we can learn about them.
Population Facts For Kids
Population means a group of living things of the same kind that live in the same place at the same time. For example, all the frogs in a pond can be one population. Scientists describe a population by asking who is in it (the species), how many there are (size), where they live (area), and when we look (time).
Scientists describe a population by asking four questions: who is in it (the species), how many individuals there are (size), where they live (area), and when we look (time).
The word population comes from the Late Latin word populatio, meaning a group of people or a crowd, which came from populus, the people of a place. Today we use it for animals, plants, and people, but scientists often use it in a special, careful way.
Biologists may split a population by space (where they live), by demography (ages and how many are born or die), or by genes (how they are related). Nowadays scientists usually mean members of a single species; when many species are together, ecologists call that a community.
Scientists study populations in two main ways: the ecological view looks at where the group lives and how its members interact with their home, and the genetic or evolutionary view looks at how genes move and change as organisms reproduce. A population has its own gene pool, and scientists use population dynamics—the math of how size and ages go up or down.
A gamodeme is a breeding group, a set of plants or animals of the same species that can mate with each other. If mating is panmictic, it means it is random and mixing freely, so gene versions spread evenly through the group.