In the context of population ecology, what do birth rates and death...

A population has certain attributes whereas an individual organism does not. An individual may have births and deaths, but a population has birth rates and death rates. In a population these rates refer to per capita births and deaths. The rates, hence, expressed are change in numbers (increase or decrease) with respect to members of the population. Here is an example. If in a pond there were 20 lotus plants last year and through reproduction 8 new plants are added, taking the current population to 28, we calculate the birth rate as 8/20 = 0.4 offspring per locus per year. If 4 individuals in a laboratory population of 40 fruit flies died during a specified time interval, say a week, the death rate in the population during that period is 4/40 = 0.1 individuals per fruit fly per week