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Carrying capacity. The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment 's maximal load, [clarification needed] which in population ...
r. /. K. selection theory. A North Atlantic right whale with solitary calf. Whale reproduction follows a K -selection strategy, with few offspring, long gestation, long parental care, and a long period until sexual maturity. In ecology, r/K selection theory relates to the selection of combinations of traits in an organism that trade off between ...
Competition (biology) Competition is an interaction between organisms or species in which both require a resource that is in limited supply (such as food, water, or territory). [1] Competition lowers the fitness of both organisms involved since the presence of one of the organisms always reduces the amount of the resource available to the other.
Using these techniques, Malthus' population principle of growth was later transformed into a mathematical model known as the logistic equation: = (), where N is the population size, r is the intrinsic rate of natural increase, and K is the carrying capacity of the population.
In a population, carrying capacity is known as the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain, which is determined by resources available. In many classic population models, r is represented as the intrinsic growth rate, where K is the carrying capacity, and N0 is the initial population size. [5]
The Ricker model is a classic discrete population model which gives the expected number (or density) of individuals N t + 1 in generation t + 1 as a function of the number of individuals in the previous generation, + = (/) Here r is interpreted as an intrinsic growth rate and k as the carrying capacity of the environment.
At intermediate population densities, also represented by half the carrying capacity, individuals are able to breed to their maximum rate. At this point, called the maximum sustainable yield, there is a surplus of individuals that can be harvested because growth of the population is at its maximum point due to the large number of reproducing ...
Climax species are mostly found in forests. Climax species, closely controlled by carrying capacity, follow K strategies, wherein species produce fewer numbers of potential offspring, but invest more heavily in securing the reproductive success of each one to the micro-environmental conditions of its specific ecological niche.