Over the last 150 years the United States has gone through the Industrial Revolution which has caused changes in age of death of citizens. Factors such as illnesses and accidents have changed their relative impact. By taking into account the deaths that occurred in a certain period of time, we can determine the survival curves of each gender in that decade. Male and female birth and death dates can be collected and results can be obtained based on these deaths as long as the people involved in the study faced the same changes throughout their lives. Both sexes usually have a survival curve of one which indicates that both had a high initial survival rate at a young age but as age increased their mortality rate also increased. This also affects other species within an ecosystem. Population ecology is the study of species that live in the same area and how their population sizes may change over time. It is how populations of different species interact with the environment that can change the dynamics of each population. Population ecology can predict the long-term likelihood of a species living in a habitat. In Chapter 13 we discussed the purpose of life and what it means for species. Individuals who maximize their reproductive success will be visible in future generations. We also discussed how every organism has a finite amount of time and energy, and once time runs out, its energy, also known as life, runs out as well. Life tables are used to visualize the addition and removal of individuals in a population. The table includes the age class of individuals in a population. Each year of reproduction forms an age class to group individuals born in the same period. Life tables can be used to study population ecology....... middle of paper ......al than females.Works CitedRicklefs, RE 2010. The Economy of nature. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, NY. Mack, R. N. & Pyke, D. A. The demography of Bromus tectorum: variation over time and space. Journal of Ecology 71, 69–93 (1983). Murie, A. The Wolves of Mount McKinley. Fauna of the National Parks of the United States (Fauna Series 5). Washington, DC: United States Government, 1944. Lynch, Heather J., and William F. Fagan. “Survival curves and their impact on estimating maximum population growth rates. “ Ecology90.4 (2009): 1116-1124.Connell, J.H. 1970. Predator-prey system in the marine intertidal region. I. Balanus gland. Ecological Monographs 40: 49–78. (Reprinted in Ecology: Individuals, Populations and Communities, 2nd edition, M. Begon, J. L. Harper and C. R. Townsend. (1990) Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.)