Carrying Capacity - Unit 2 Lesson 13

Sometimes I will provide helpful videos here on the announcements page to help you better understand complicated concepts in Biology. Also, sometimes watching a video can be much more helpful than reading a long article. For example, if you don’t want to read the Scholastic GO! article on Populations and Communities, you can instead watch one of the following videos.

First we have a video from youtube Biology teacher sensation, Mr. Anderson at Bozeman Science. He does a great job of breaking down the concept of “carrying capacity” - why populations don’t continue to grow forever. Now, the video gets pretty technical at around the 5:40 mark so don’t feel like you have to watch the whole thing. If you are feeling up for it, go ahead.

The other video is from my good friend Hank Green at Crash Course (just kidding, I don’t know Hank). This video covers pretty much the same thing but with more humor.

Pick either video to watch and keep these two questions in mind as you watch.

1. Population size is a balance between what two factors?
2. What causes the exponential growth curve to level off?

-Mr. Sweeney