Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth

Carrying Capacity
• The carrying capacity is the size
of a population that can live
indefinitely using the resources
available where that population
lives

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth

• For example, consider an island onto which is
dropped a colony of rabbits. As long as there is
an adequate supply of food and water, the
rabbits will not only survive but they will
reproduce and the colony will get larger.
• The rabbit population can continue to grow as
long as food and water are adequate. However,
if at some point, there are more rabbits that
there is food to feed them, then the rabbit
population will start to decline

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth
Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth
 Biotic Potential
• Biotic potential is the
maximum reproductive capacity of
a population if resources are unlimited. Full
expression of the biotic potential of an
organism is restricted by environmental
resistance , any condition that inhibits the
increase in number of the population.

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth

• It is generally only reached when
environmental conditions are very
favorable. A species reaching its biotic
potential would exhibit
exponential population growth and be
said to have a high fertility, that is, how
many offspring are produced per mother

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth
 Environmental Resistance
• the effect of physical and biological factors in
preventing a species from reproducing at its
maximum rate. factors in an environment such
as predators, competition, climate, and food
availability, that keep its various
populations from reaching their
maximum growth potential

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth
 Exponential Growth
• Rapid Growth of organisms multiplying in
each generation
• If a population has a constant birth rate
through time and is never limited by food or
disease, it has what is known as exponential
growth. With exponential growth the birth
rate alone controls how fast (or slow) the
population grows.

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth

Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth
Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth
Carrying Capacity Biotic Potential Environmental Resistance Exponential Growth