Affiliation:
1. School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Israel
2. Department of Life Sciences Ben‐Gurion University of the Negev Beer‐Sheva Israel
3. The Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change Ben‐Gurion University of the Negev Beer‐Sheva Israel
Abstract
AbstractCarrying capacity has multiple definitions, but nowadays, it is mainly referred to as the maximum number of individuals of a particular species sustained by the environment. We examined whether multiple populations of two flour beetle species grown under controlled laboratory conditions reach similar asymptotic population sizes when provided with similar amounts of food resources. We demonstrate that the variation in the asymptotic population sizes was considerably larger than that of the initial food resources and that the latter had no significant effect on the former. Our results experimentally contribute to past literature criticizing the carrying capacity concept, demonstrating that there is no single carrying capacity even under strict laboratory conditions. Therefore, we should not expect to often find “carrying capacities” in nature, where resources fluctuate over time, and interspecific interactions are ubiquitous. We suggest that the classic meaning of carrying capacity should be revisited or saved chiefly for didactic purposes.
Subject
Genetics,Molecular Biology,Animal Science and Zoology,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics