Question

Please help me I do not understand. Thank you!

Even at a very low r, a population can eventually show a j-shaped growth curve. Why? In your own words, why can’t real populations grow exponentially?

Answer 1

Dear Student answer of your question is given below:

J shaped growth curves comes into play when resources are unlimited that is not likely to happen in real world. In real world resources are limited hence population exhibit logistic growth curve i.e S shaped curve but when resources are unlimited and plentiful, population exhibit J shaped curve i.e exponential growth curve. The real population can't grow exponentially because of the reason that in real world we have limited resources hence limited increment in population and limited food available which causes decrement in size of population with time and results in S shaped curve. Charles drawin also suggested this thing in the form of statement " struggle for existence''. Which states that individuals compete for limited resources.

" r" can be postive, negative or even zero and is called as intrinsic rate. This indicates us difference between birth and death rates. It's equation is given as follows ,

dN/dT= rN( K-N)/K

r is also dependent upon Carrying capacity which indicates the max population size that any particular environment can support. Hence due to low value of r , density dependent factors influence the carrying capacity and results in exponential growth curve.

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