Question

A population with equal number of births and deaths will show

• A. Acceleration phase of growth
• B. Plateau phase
• C. Exponential growth phase
• D. Initial phase of growth

Answer 1

The correct option is B

Plateau phase

When the number of births are equal to the number of deaths, the population size is not increasing and the population has reached a stationary phase or plateau phase. When the number of births exceed the number of deaths, the population is in a growing phase or acceleration phase of growth and when number of deaths exceed the number of births, the population is in a decline phase. In the initial phase of growth the population increases slowly at first, known as lag phase, until it reaches a considerable size and then increases rapidly because the resources are still plenty at this stage.