Population Growth and Carrying Capacity_

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Howard Community College *

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Geography

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Feb 20, 2024

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Population Growth and Carrying Capacity African Lions: Modeling Enduring Understanding Ecology is the study of the interactions between organisms and their environment. A population is a group of organisms and the number of individuals in that population may change depending on the environment. Populations may fluctuate year to year but we can predict their growth using mathematical models. The two types of mathematical models are exponential growth and logistic growth. Exponential growth occurs in the absence of any limiting factors and the rate of growth continues to increase over time. Logistic growth occurs in the presence of limiting factors. Limiting factors are divided into density-dependent and density- independent and determine carrying capacity, which is the maximum number of individuals an environment can support. Essential Question How do environmental conditions affect population growth and carrying capacity within a community? Directions In this activity you will distinguish between exponential and logistic growth, identify carrying capacity, distinguish between density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors, apply the population models to data sets, and determine carrying capacity from population data. 1. Open the online “African Lions: Modeling Populations” simulation . 2. Read and engage fully with the simulation. 3. Answer the following questions as you work through the simulation. Stop and Think Questions Question/Prompt (Slide numbers are along the bottom of the screen.) Your Response 1. On slide/frame 5 you are asked to predict what you think will happen to the Lion population. Paste a screenshot of your predictions (or retype it) in the box to the right. The population will continue to crash until the point where there are no lions. 2. Briefly explain your prediction. Since there are fewer lions, they can not rely on each other, they have less support and become weak. 3. What is exponential growth (slides 7 When the data exponentially grows; in this case, the numbers

- 8)? would rapidly increase. Between 4-6 hours the population went from 16-32 and between 11-12 hours, the population went from 2048 to 4096. 4. List 3 - 4 examples of density- dependent limiting factors (slides 10 - 11). Food, space/shelter, water, disease, and predation. 5. List 2 density-independent limiting factors (slides 11, 17). Climate, # population. 6. Define carrying capacity (slide 13). The number of individuals that an environment can support is called the carrying capacity 7. What was the carrying capacity for the lions before the disease outbreak in 1963 (slide 14)? It was about 70-80 lions 8. How did your predictions compare to the actual lion data (slide 16)? The actual lion data flexes a lot, it fluctuates up and down whereas my prediction is in a linear form. 9. What might have caused the lion data to look like this (slide 16)? Many limiting factors have caused this such as their environment, their food and water, and the other population of lion that they rely on. 10. Apply what you know to the human population. Do you think Earth’s population will reach carrying capacity? What might be some limiting factors (slide 18)? Earth may reach population carrying capacity but there is no guarantee. Some limiting factors could be water, food, shelter, life conditions and the current existing population. If the population reaches carrying capacity, the data could stay that way or it could crash as there are not many resources to provide the lions. 11. What do you think will happen if the human population does reach carrying capacity (slide 18)? If the human population does reach carrying capacity, it could either stay that way or it could crash because the amount of resources is insufficient to provide for the humans. Reflection Questions Answer the following reflection questions. Question/Prompt Your Response 12. What do you think will happen to the lions in the future? The population of the lions would continue to fluctuate unless more fertility occurs which increases the population to carrying capacity. 13. What type of new limiting factors could be introduced? Fertility, amount of space, 14. Why do we use mathematical models when we look at real data? We use mathematical models when we look at data because we can interpret exact data points so we can see how data changes

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