Define carrying capacity in your own words. How does it relate to the resources available in an environment?

Carrying capacity is the maximum population size an environment can sustain long-term, given the available resources like food, water, shelter, and space.

List four resources that can affect the carrying capacity of a squirrel population.

Food (pecans, seeds, grasshoppers), water, shelter (nesting space), and space.

Explain how predation can act as a limiting factor for a population, using the squirrel example from the video.

Predation limits the squirrel population because the more squirrels there are, the more food there is for predators like hawks, cats, owls, snakes, and raccoons. Increased predation can decrease the squirrel population.

What is population density, and how do birth, death, immigration, and emigration affect it?

Population density is the number of individuals in a specific area. Birth and immigration increase population density, while death and emigration decrease it.

Differentiate between density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors. Give an example of each from the video.

Density-dependent factors are influenced by the population density (e.g., food, water, shelter, space, predation, disease). Density-independent factors are not influenced by population density (e.g., wildfire).

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Population Limits in Ecosystems

Name: Population Limits in Ecosystems
Author: Insta~Lesson

8th GradeScience75 min

aligned to Ngss Ms-ls2-1

Learning Objective

I can explain how carrying capacity limits the size of populations in an ecosystem.

Lesson Flow

Watch Video

7 min

Carrying Capacity | Population Ecology

Unknown Channel

Practice

23 min

12 questions • Multiple choice & Short answer

Exit Ticket

5 min

“Explain how the availability of resources like food and nesting space can limit the size of a squirrel population in a forest.”

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