 |  Environmental Science: A Global Concern, 7/e William P. Cunningham,
University of Minnesota
Mary Ann Cunningham,
Vassar College
Barbara Woodworth Saigo,
St. Cloud State University
Population Dynamics
Chapter OverviewThe study of populations produces important insights into how the biotic world works. Living organisms have an incredible capacity to reproduce themselves. Given unlimited resources and favorable conditions, the earth would rapidly become covered with moose, people, or almost any other life form. The catch, of course, is that resources are far from unlimited and conditions are not always ideal. So the size attained by any population is governed by the portion of resources it can garner from the environment.
Organisms in a population must contend with numerous abiotic factors, members of other species, and each other in this quest to turn environmental resources into babies.
In this chapter, you will learn the explosive power of exponential growth and the limits imposed on such growth in finite spaces. You will also come to understand the strategies organisms use to address these limits.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education