Describe a population growth curve, differentiating between systems with and without environmental resistance. What will be an ideal response?
Organisms newly introduced into a favorable environment with no competitors for food or
space will reproduce exponentially, tracing a J-shaped population growth curve. In nature,
very few populations reproduce at this maximal rate, however, because environmental
conditions are rarely ideal and because limiting factors in the environment quickly slow the
rate of population growth. The sum of the effects of these limiting factors in the environment
is called environmental resistance. Environmental resistance causes the actual population
growth curve to be lower than the maximum potential growth curve. When limiting factors
intrude, the growth curve is S-shaped; it gradually flattens toward an upper limit of the
number of individuals in the population. The final number of organisms oscillates around the
carrying capacity of the environment for that species, which is the population size of each
species that a community can support indefinitely under a stable set of environmental
conditions.
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This variable atmospheric component can exist in all three states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas) at the temperatures and pressures that normally exist on Earth
A) water B) ozone C) nitrogen D) methane E) oxygen
Older lithosphere is destroyed in association with ________
A) deep-sea trenches B) fracture zones C) hydrothermal vents D) mid-ocean ridges E) spreading centers
Your car lights were left on while you were shopping, and now your car battery is dead. Has the pH of the battery fluid increased or decreased?
A. The pH of the battery fluid has increased. B. The pH of the battery fluid does not change. C. The pH of the battery fluid has decreased. D. Since the lights were left on and the battery is dead, the pH of the battery fluid must be zero.
The Great Plains region of the Central United States plays host to about ________ percent of the tornadoes that occur on Earth.
A. 25 B. 95 C. 70 D. 50 E. 10