Biology 1120: Conservation Biology

Instructor: Jessica Berryman

Fumie Yoshihiro
3/12/16
Costco Bell Pepper Population Growth
1) How many seeds were in your initial pepper?
It had 352 seeds.
2) How many plants were alive in your pepper population after
only 5 generations?
Its population grew to 5.40397E+12 (5,403,974,828,032) after 5 years
(generations) if there were no preventative checks.
3) Describe your graph.
Costco Bell Pepper Exponential Population Growth
1E+13

5403974828032

1E+12
1E+11

15352201216

1E+10
1E+09

43614208

100000000
10000000
1000000

123904

100000
10000

352

1000
100
0

Above is a graph which shows the growth in my bell pepper population

over five generations (years) in log scale, assuming an equal number
of new seeds per pepper with each generation. Y axis shows number of
plants and X axis shows generation (years).
The population growth shows a straight line which makes it easy to
make predictions. As you can see from the graph, from one pepper
which had 352 seeds in its first generation, within five years, it quickly
grows their number to 5 trillion. Just to see this graph, we can notice
how this number growth is overwhelming and uncontrolled in such a
short period.

4) Make a list of five environmental factors that might limit

natural or wild populations.
Five environmental factors which might affect the growth of a
population would be
Climate change
Predators
Disease
Food Scarcity
Competitors
5) If a population were subjected to some of these environmental
factors for a considerable length of time, would you expect to
see any changes in the population? Based on the information
provided above, explain your answer.
I would expect to see my graph is not having a steady straight line
anymore to grow into such an enormous number.
Climate change like warming and cooling may give one of the direct
effects on plants. In 1993, in Japan, there was a small shortage in rice
stock and we had to rely on emergency imports from other countries.
This worst harvest was due to an unusually cool and rainy summer.
Turned out, we could only harvest 75% of rice we normally consume.
Predators play an important role to keep balance on biodiversity. If
preys population grow, the population of predators also will increase. If
the number of predators increases until at certain point, the number of
preys will decrease because predators consume preys. Predators help
preys from growing its number uncontrollably.
The disease is another factor which limits the population growth. For
example, during the 14th century, the Black Death put 75 to 200
million people into death in Europe. Depends on the environment
where the population growth, inbreeding may be necessary. This will
decrease the fitness of the specie and after all, they may put into
extinction by a single disease.
Food is one of the most important factors for living things. When the
population reaches the carrying capacity of the area, there will be not
enough food supply for species. After all, lack of food supply will
decrease the number of population.
Competitors are another aspect of limiting the population growth. For
example, when we look at the forest, those trees which are taller than

the other can receive more sunlight. After all, trees shorter than the
other have limited sunlight and probably cannot make as many seeds
as other plants. Among the competitors, the strongest individual beats
the weaker one.