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Answer
The carrying capacity of any individual biological species is the maximum size of the population which can sustain indefinitely in that environment provided the necessary requirements like food, water and other environmental conditions are available.
The carrying capacity in the graph is the point on the graph where the line of population is horizontal. The graph has the population in y-axis and time period on x-axis. Alternatively if in the carrying capacity graph the line becomes parallel to x axis then it gives the carrying capacity. Here, at the point 2000 on y-axis and starting from 15 months in x-axis is the point of carrying capacity is marked with horizontal line and border in the image attached.
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To find carrying capacity on a graph, you need to locate the point on the graph where the population line is horizontal. Alternatively, the carrying capacity may be explicitly marked with a dotted horizontal line.
To find carrying capacity on a graph, you need to locate the point on the graph where the population line is horizontal. Alternatively, the carrying capacity may be explicitly marked with a dotted horizontal line or a horizontal line of a different color.
Typically, your graph is going to have population on the y-axis and some measurement of time (months, years, etc) on the x-axis. Once the population has reached a steady state, it will show zero growth, which will result in a slope of zero: a horizontal line.
In the image
below, the carrying capacity is 10000.
In the graphs below, the carrying capacity is indicated by a dotted line.
Because populations naturally vary and rarely remain at absolutely zero growth for long periods of time, some graphs will identify carrying capacity, and the area on the graph identified as such will not be a flat line. See the image below for an example.
We all know that living things need resources in order to survive. We often, however, don’t make the connection that the amount of available resources dictates the size of a population – that a population will grow when resources are in surplus, decline when resources are scarce, and stabilize when the population is at the maximum level that can be sustained. Making this connection between resource availability and population growth patterns
is encompassed in the study of carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is taught in middle and high school biology classrooms around the world and is a crucial concept in the study of population. Because the study of carrying capacity can be complex, it can help to first think of the concept in familiar terms. For instance, you may have seen the phrase “carrying capacity” posted on the side of a school bus. And in fact, “carrying capacity” in reference to a school bus or an elevator is not
all that different from carrying capacity in reference to a population. On a school bus, the carrying capacity would be the maximum number of people that could safely fit. In ecological terms, carrying capacity is defined as the maximum number of a species that can sustainably live in a given area. In other words, a population’s carrying capacity is the size at which a population can no longer grow due to lack of supporting resources. All populations have a carrying capacity, whether
bacteria in a bottle or rabbits in a forest. If we were referring to a rabbit population in a forest, the carrying capacity would refer to the maximum rabbit population that can be supported by that forest’s resources. Biologists often graph populations to show growth trends. A graph that reveals an “s” shape indicates that the population has hit its carrying capacity. For example, in the graph pictured above (taken from the activity, Pop Ecology Files), we can see that the population of
this particular species was growing until day 23, and then leveled off at a carrying capacity of 2,000. The graph of human population currently looks like a classic J-curve of
exponential growth. The comparison begs the question, does carrying capacity also apply to our human population? And if so, what is it? Stay tuned for a future blog addressing that very question. Tags: environmental education, carrying capacity, biology