Question

How does carrying capacity affect exponential growth?

Answer 1

The population is defined as a group of species living in a well-defined geographical area that share or compete with each other for resources. The population is expressed in different ways, such as numbers, biomass, percent, etc. depending upon the species.

Complete answer:
The size of a population is increased by births and immigration, while it decreases with death and emigration. For exponential growth, the resources (food and space) should be available continuously for the growing population. When the resources are unlimited, each species present in the given geographical area has the capacity to fully grow in number in an exponential form. In that case, the population growth will be equal to the number of births minus the number of deaths. But it cannot be true because the resources are limited and eventually only the “fittest” individuals survive and reproduce.
In reality, nature has enough resources to support maximum growth of the population up to a point after which, no further growth is possible. This limit set by nature is known as nature’s carrying capacity for that species and is denoted by K. This type of growth is called Logistic growth. Initially, the growth is slow and is called the lag phase, then the growth is accelerated and finally, an asymptote when the carrying capacity is reached. When a graph between Population density and time is plotted, a sigmoid curve is obtained.

Note: When the carrying capacity is considered, this type of growth is realistic as the resources needed for the growth of most animal populations become limited sooner. This type of growth is called Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth.