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Population change. Population change is simply the change in the number of people in a specified area during a specific time period. Demographics (or demography) is the study of population statistics, their variation and its causes. These statistics include birth rates, death rates (and hence life expectancy), migration rates and sex ratios.
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. [1] [2] It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. [3]
Genetic variation is the difference in DNA among individuals [1] or the differences between populations among the same species. [2] The multiple sources of genetic variation include mutation and genetic recombination. [3] Mutations are the ultimate sources of genetic variation, but other mechanisms, such as genetic drift, contribute to it, as well.
The Demography of the World Population from 1950 to 2100. Data source: United Nations — World Population Prospects 2017. Demography (from Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos) 'people, society' and -γραφία (-graphía) 'writing, drawing, description') [1] is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the ...
Founder effect: The original population (left) could give rise to different founder populations (right). In population genetics, the founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. It was first fully outlined by Ernst Mayr in 1942 ...
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection", contrasting it with artificial selection, which is ...
E. O. Wilson defined sociobiology as "the extension of population biology and evolutionary theory to social organization". [ 6 ] Sociobiology is based on the premise that some behaviors (social and individual) are at least partly inherited and can be affected by natural selection. [ 7 ] It begins with the idea that behaviors have evolved over ...
Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It ranges widely, from the number of species to differences within species, and can be correlated to the span of survival for a species. [1] It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to ...