Populations and Communities
Populations and Communities
Populations and Communities
Populations
What is a population?
The Kalahari Desert in Africa is a part of Earth’s biosphere.
Several groups of meerkats live there in a wildlife refuge.
Meerkats are small mammals that live in family groups and
help each other care for their young. Meerkats interact with
each other for survival. They sleep underground in burrows.
They hunt for food during the day. They stand upright to
watch for danger and call out warnings to others.
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Ecosystem
Biosphere
Population
Competition
At times, there is not enough food for every organism in
a community. Members of a population must compete with
other populations and each other for enough food to survive.
Competition is the demand for resources, such as food, water, and
shelter, in short supply in a community. When there are not
enough resources available to survive, there is more
competition in a community. In the Kalahari Desert, where
water is scarce, the meerkats compete with other animals for
resources such as food and water.
Population Sizes
When there is less food available, a population of meerkats
gets smaller. Female meerkats cannot raise as many young.
Some meerkats might leave the area to find food elsewhere.
If there is plenty of food, the size of a population of
meerkats grows larger. More meerkats survive to adulthood
and live longer. Changes in environmental factors can result
in changes to the size of a population.
Limiting Factors
Environmental factors, such as available food, water,
shelter, sunlight, and temperature, are possible limiting
factors for a population. A limiting factor is anything that
restricts the size of a population. If there is not enough sunlight,
green plants cannot make food by photosynthesis. A lack of
green plants affects organisms that eat green plants.
Temperature is a limiting factor for some organisms.
When the temperature drops below freezing, many
organisms die because it is too cold for them to survive.
Disease and predators—animals that eat other animals—can
be limiting factors for organisms. Natural disasters such as
fires and floods also limit the size of populations.
Carrying Capacity
What happens when a population reaches its biotic
potential? It stops growing when the available resources in
the ecosystem are used up. The largest number of individuals of
one species that an environment can support is the carrying capacity.
A population grows until it reaches the carrying capacity of
an environment. Disease, space, food, and predators are
some of the factors that limit the carrying capacity of an
ecosystem.
The carrying capacity of an environment does not
stay the same. It increases and decreases as the amount of
available resources increases and decreases. At times, a
population can briefly grow beyond the carrying capacity of
an environment.
Overpopulation