Population Growth Curves

Population Growth if unlimited resources are present, growth will be exponential the curve will always be a “J” curve or an exponential growth curve

resources are never unlimited as population rises, resources decline if the growth is too rapid, resources are rapidly depleted and a population crash can occur this pattern occurs often with many populations (including humans)

Elk

Video - The Importance of Predators

more often what happens is that the resources slowly decrease, the growth rate slowly increases, and they meet this point that they oscillate around is the carrying capacity of the environment for that particular organism this is called an s-shaped or logistic curve

Human Population Growth What are the causes of this huge increase in the human population? What are some possible consequences for us? Our future? (Think: the elk)

To Do: Video: 7 Billion Current World Population Activity: Human Population Growth