Question

You are studying a population of lemmings in Tromso, Norway. Because the winter is so harsh the lemmings only reproduce once every year in the summertime and let’s pretend there are no overlapping generations. You use mark-recapture techniques to estimate the population size of your population. In the first year you estimate that there are 100 lemmings in your population. In the second year you perform a mark-recapture study. You initially catch 25 lemmings. Two days later you catch 35 lemmings, of which 5 were marked. As a population ecologist, you are naturally interested in calculating the growth rate of your lemming population and estimating how large your lemming population will be in five years. Estimate the population size for the second year. Then, determine how big the lemming population will be 5 years from now (now= the second year). That population size would be…..

Answer 1