If a population temporarily exceeds its carrying capacity, what is the typical short-term trend?

• A. continued exponential growth
• B. no change
• C. a decrease due to resource limitation, then stabilization at or below carrying capacity.
• D. immediate extinction

Answer: (C)

When a population overshoots its carrying capacity, resources become scarce and competition increases. This reduces birth rates and/or increases death rates, causing the growth rate to become negative. As a result, the population declines until it returns to the carrying capacity or below. Once near that limit, the environment can support it again, so the numbers tend to level off with some fluctuations around carrying capacity. This short-term trend is a drop due to resource limitation, followed by stabilization at or below the carrying capacity.