What would happen to the moose population if the wolves were removed from the island?
What would happen to the moose population if the wolves were removed from Isle Royale? Moose would go unchecked and increase to a point and then decrease due to other limiting factors. Describe the pattern between the wolf (predator) population in relation to the moose (prey) population. They depend on one another.
Which curve exhibits carrying capacity?
In logistic growth, a population’s per capita growth rate gets smaller and smaller as population size approaches a maximum imposed by limited resources in the environment, known as the carrying capacity ( K). Exponential growth produces a J-shaped curve, while logistic growth produces an S-shaped curve.
Which of the two curves shows a population reaching carrying capacity?
logistic curve
As competition increases and resources become increasingly scarce, populations reach the carrying capacity (K) of their environment, causing their growth rate to slow nearly to zero. This produces an S-shaped curve of population growth known as the logistic curve (right).
What is the type of population growth that most natural populations follow?
Logistic growth is commonly observed in nature as well as in the laboratory (Figure 6), but ecologists have observed that the size of many populations fluctuates over time rather than remaining constant as logistic growth predicts.
Why does the wolf population decline?
Smith largely blames outbreaks of disease – including distemper, mange and the parvo virus – and packs moving out of the park for the decline. Smith says the leading cause of natural mortality is wolves killing wolves.
Why is it difficult for demographers to determine the Earth’s carrying capacity?
Understanding Carrying Capacity There are limits to the life-sustaining resources earth can provide us. However, it is very difficult for ecologists to calculate human carrying capacity. Humans are a complex species. We do not reproduce, consume resources, and interact with our living environment uniformly.
What is the difference between a carrying capacity graph & an exponential growth curve?
So the results of both kinds of growth are vastly different too. Exponential growth occurs when the birth rate in a specific time period is continuous. Logistic growth occurs when the population rapidly increases in size until it reaches a certain point, called the carrying capacity.
Why the population exceeded its carrying capacity?
When the number of births equals the number of deaths, the population is at its carrying capacity for that habitat. If resources are being used faster than they are being replenished, then the species has exceeded its carrying capacity. If this occurs, the population will then decrease in size.