A scientist places 8 pairs of beetles in a glass box with 16 grams of flour and a constant source of water. The scientist adds a
nother 16 grams of flour every 17 days. The graph shows the growth of the beetle population over 175 days
Population of Beetle
25
50
75 100 125 150 175
Time (days)
Based on the data, what is the likely carrying capacity of the beetle population?
200
As the graph is not provided, lets answer this question generally.
Explanation:
Carrying capacity can be described as the maximum number of organisms of a species that a particular habitat can support. Beyond the carrying capacity, the resources will start to deplete and competition will begin for these resources among the organisms. As a result, the population will start to decline due to lesser number of resources available.
In the above experiment, although the scientist is adding flour for the beetles every 17 days but as the population increases, the flour will not be enough for all the beetles.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch linen merchant who specialized in grinding glass lenses to ever finer specifications. This grounded glass lenses built at an ever finer specifications was the groundwork for his manufacturing of the microscope that is used for studying and describing various living microscopic animalcules.
