Question

Population growth is determined by interaction of biotic potential and environmental resistance. Comment on the statement.

Answer 1

The size of a population for any species is not a static parameter. It keeps changing in time, depending on various factors including food availability, predation pressure, and adverse weather. In fact, it is these changes in population density that give us some idea of what is happening to the population- whether it is flourishing or declining. Whatever might be the ultimate reasons, the density of population in a given habitat during a given period fluctuates due to changes in environmental conditions, also referred to as environmental resistance. For any species, the minimal requirement is one more species on which it can feed. Even plant species which makes its own food, cannot survive alone; it needs soil microbes to break down the organic matter in soil and return the inorganic nutrients for absorption. It is obvious that in nature, animals, plants, and microbes do not and cannot live in isolation but interact in various ways to form a biological community.