Chapter 6, Problem 6.1CTDQ

To determine

The comparisonbetween advantages and disadvantages of a species that result from exponential or logistic growth and explanation corresponding to the statement that hares have evolved to reproduce as rapidly as possible, while lynx appear to have intrinsic or social growth limits.

Answer to Problem 6.1CTDQ

The advantage of logistic and exponential growth is that when food is abundant, number of species grows rapidly, whereas its disadvantage is that the competition among species increases for food. Lynx have social growth limit because they completely depend upon the number of hares. As the number of hares decreases, the population of lynx also decreases simultaneously.

Explanation of Solution

The exponential growth is the large increase in population in a short period of time, whereas the slow increase in population that becomes constant on reaching the carrying capacity is called logistic growth.

The advantages and disadvantagesof a species that result from exponential or logistic growth are shown below.

Advantage	Disadvantage
The number of species in the ecosystem increases in a short period of time.	The load of carrying capacity of an area increases as the number of species increases.
The increase in species population also increases the population of predators to keep the food chain moving.	With an increase in the population of species, the competition for food among them increases.
In the presence of abundant food, the number of species grows rapidly.	When the population of species overtakes the carrying capacity, then the population crash occurs.

The growth of lynx is completely dependent upon the population of hares because lynx are predator for hares. When the number of haresis more, abundant food is available for lynx. However, as lynx start eating more and more hares, the number of prey starts to decrease andeventually, the number of lynx also decreases due to less availability of food. Hence, lynx have an intrinsic or social growth limit and hares have evolved to reproduce rapidly.