1. Last time we talked about how the number of individuals in a population changes over time. Who remembers what this is called?

2. Sometimes a population of organisms will grow too much When there are too many organisms in a population, this is called overpopulation

3. Overpopulation is bad because too many organisms in an ecosystem will use up all of the ecosystem's resources Resources include food, water, and places to live

4. Every ecosystem has something called a carrying capacity The carrying capacity is the number of organisms an ecosystem can keep alive with its resources For example, ecosystems with lots of resources have a high carrying capacity

5. 1) There are two ecosystems with different carrying capacities. Ecosystem 1 has lots of resources Ecosystem 2 has few resources Which ecosystem has a larger carrying capacity?

6. When an ecosystem has more organisms that its carrying capacity, overpopulation has occurred. Once overpopulation has occurred, serious changes start to happen in an ecosystem

7. Let's practice... 1) What is it called when there are too many organisms in an ecosystem? 2) What happens to the resources in an ecosystem when overpopulation occurs?