Question

What is the typical shape of a population growth curve? How can biotic potential be represented in the same way graphically?

Answer 1

The typical population growth curve follows the sigmoidal shape or S shape curve. In that, the species population growth initially low/slow followed by fast and longer growth and again decrease in growth when it reaches to equilibrium or stabilization. It is involved in the regulation of population size based on biotic factors like density dependent and density independent factors.

Density-dependent factors- Involved in the regulation of population size

Example: Competition for resources leads to

Predation

Parasitism

Diseases

Density-independent factors- Not involved in the regulation of population size and distribution

Examples are

• Floods
• Hurricanes
• Severe Drought
• Fires
• Temperature

How can biotic potential be represented in the same way graphically?

The biotic potential can be represented by exponential growth curve. When you have infinite resources, the species population shows exponential growth curve. The best example is the bacterial growth. In exponential growth, the population’s growth rate increases over time, in proportion to the size of the population. If the bacteria get exponential growth when r (the per capita rate of increase) for that population is positive and it is constant. Furthermore, this positive, constant r can lead to exponential growth leads to r max and at this stage, the bacteria do have a higher maximum per capita rate of increase is often known as called its biotic potential, is expressed in the following equation dN/dT= r max N.