Textbook Question
Explain why a decrease in population growth rate is expected as a nonhuman population approaches carrying capacity.
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Is the Human Population Too Large?
Chapter 15, Problem 5
According to the graph shown here, the carrying capacity for fruit flies in the environment of the culture bottle is .
a. 0 flies;
b. 100 flies;
c. 150 flies;
d. between 100 and 150 flies;
e. impossible to determine
Verified step by step guidance1
Observe the graph and note the y-axis, which represents the fruit fly population size in the culture bottle, and the x-axis, which represents time.
Identify the trend of the population size over time. Notice that the population increases rapidly at first, then fluctuates, and finally stabilizes.
Determine the range within which the population size stabilizes. In this case, it appears to stabilize between 100 and 150 flies.
Understand that the carrying capacity is the maximum population size that the environment can sustain over a long period without degrading. This is where the population size stabilizes.
Conclude that the carrying capacity for fruit flies in this environment is between 100 and 150 flies, as indicated by the stabilization of the population size in that range.
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Related Practice
Textbook Question
When individuals in a population are evenly spaced throughout their habitat, their dispersion is termed as .
a. clumped;
b. uniform;
c. random;
d. excessive;
e. exponential
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Textbook Question
A population growing exponentially .
a. is stable in size;
b. adds a fixed number of individuals every generation;
c. adds a larger number of individuals in each successive generation;
d. will likely expand forever;
e. will not crash
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Textbook Question
All of the following are density-dependent factors that can influence population size except .
a. weather;
b. food supply;
c. waste concentration in the environment;
d. infectious disease;
e. supply of suitable habitat for survival
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Textbook Question
In contrast to nonhuman populations, human population growth rates have begun to decline due to .
a. voluntarily increasing death rates;
b. voluntarily decreasing birth rates;
c. involuntary increases in death rates;
d. involuntary decreases in birth rates;
e. density-dependent factors
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Textbook Question
Populations that rely on stored resources are likely to overshoot the carrying capacity of the environment and consequently experience a(n) .
a. demographic momentum;
b. cultural carrying capacity;
c. decrease in death rates;
d. population crash;
e. exponential growth
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