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NCERT Exemplar · Q1

Q.If a population of 50 Paramoecium present in a pool increases to 150 after an hour, what would be the growth rate of population?

(a) 50 per hour
(b) 200 per hour
(c) 5 per hour
(d) 100 per hour
Karnataka PUCMCQ· 1mImportance★★★★★
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✓ Free question

The population growth rate is the change in population size over a specific time period, which in this case is 100 Paramoecium per hour.

In biology, understanding how populations change over time is fundamental to ecology. When we talk about the "growth rate of a population," we are referring to how quickly the number of individuals in that population increases or decreases within a given timeframe. For organisms like Paramoecium, which reproduce rapidly under favourable conditions, this rate can be quite significant and often follows patterns of exponential growth initially.

The growth rate is essentially a measure of the net change in population size. It accounts for new individuals added through births (or reproduction, in the case of Paramoecium, which reproduces asexually by binary fission) and individuals lost through deaths. When the number of births exceeds the number of deaths, the population experiences positive growth, as seen in this problem.

To determine the growth rate, we need to calculate the total increase in the population and then divide it by the time taken for that increase. This gives us the average rate of change over the specified period.

Let's denote the initial population size as $N_0$ and the population size after time $t$ as $N_t$.

The change in population, often denoted as $\Delta N$, is calculated by subtracting the initial population from the final population.

$$ \Delta N = N_t - N_0 $$

The time interval, $\Delta t$, is the duration over which this change occurred.

The population growth rate is then given by the formula:

$$ \text{Growth Rate} = \frac{\Delta N}{\Delta t} $$

Given the information in the question:

  • Initial population ($N_0$) = $50$ Paramoecium
  • Final population ($N_t$) = $150$ Paramoecium
  • Time interval ($\Delta t$) = $1$ hour

First, calculate the change in population ($\Delta N$):

$$ \Delta N = 150 \text{ Paramoecium} - 50 \text{ Paramoecium} = 100 \text{ Paramoecium} $$

Next, calculate the growth rate using the formula:

$$ \text{Growth Rate} = \frac{100 \text{ Paramoecium}}{1 \text{ hour}} = 100 \text{ Paramoecium per hour} $$

This means that, on average, the population of Paramoecium increased by 100 individuals every hour during this period.

✓Final answer

The growth rate of the Paramoecium population is 100 per hour, which corresponds to option (D).

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