Population+biology

Population Biology (Dynamics of population growth)

Biotic potential - Unrestrained biological reproduction

Common house fly- Female can lay 120 eggs in a generation, assuming that half of those are also female, who can begin laying their own eggs 56 days later, in one year, with seven generations being born and reproducing themselves the original fly would be a parent of 5.6 TRILLION offspring

In the real world there are no limits to growth

1970 - ecologists coined the term carrying capacity to describe the number of animals that can be supported in a cerain area

when a population exceeds or overshoots its carrying capacity resources become limited and death rated rise

If deaths become more than births, the growth rate becomes negative, and the population may suddenly decrease called a population crash

Some populations go through repeated boom and bust cycles