Question

B. A family of foxes arrived on the island after the rabbits were released. No

Answer 1

The carrying capacity is affected by dense dependent and dense independent factors. 1) During the fourth year. 2) Negative impact. K decreased from 200 to 100 rabbits.  

What is carrying capacity?

Carrying capacity -K- is the capability of the environment to support a growing population.

It is a constant that coincides with the population size at which natality and mortality rates are equal. This is the equilibrium point.

Commonly, environments have limited resources, and as the population grows, resources are consumed faster, leading to an increase in the competition rate.

Per capita growth rate decreases as population size, N, increases.

• If the N < K, the population can still grow.

• When N approximates to K, the population's growth speed decreases.

• When N = K, the population reaches equilibrium,

• When N > K, the population must decrease in size because there are not enough resources to maintain that size.

The carrying capacity might be affected by limiting factors, which might be

• density dependent (for example, competition, predation, etcetera)

• density independent. This last case refers to dense-independent factors, among which we can mention human impact or natural disasters (fires, volcanic eruption, flooding).

In the exposed example, when referring to rabbit's carrying capacity, we can assume it is limmited by intraspecific competition and by predation.

• Population size between the 1st and 2nd years

At first we can see that during the first two years, the number of rabbits increased until it was a little bit over 200 individuals.

• Population size between the years 2, 3 and 4

During the second, third, and fourth year, the number of rabbits was kept around 200 individuals, which leads us to assume that K = 200 rabbits.

• Population size the fourth year

However, in the fourth year, there was a sharp decrease in the number of rabbits. Probably this event was due to the arrival of foxes (predators) on the island.

• Population size after the fourth year

In the presence of foxes, the number of rabbits varied around 100 (K = 100).

According to this information, we can assume that only intraspecific competition (related to resources) had a significant role during the first years.

But with the foxes' arrival, the rabbits' carrying capacity decreased from 200 to 100, meaning that, during the following years, predation strongly influenced the rabbits' carrying capacity.  

1) During what year did the foxes most likely arrive?

During the fourth year

2) How did the arrival of the fox family impact the carrying capacity of the rabbit population on this island?

Foxes had a negative impact on the foxes' carrying capacity. It decreased from k = 200 to k = 100 since the foxes arrival to the island.

You can learn more about carrying capacity at

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