Biology 1120: Conservation Biology

Jessica Moon

Perfect Pepper Paper

1. After cutting into my luscious green bell pepper I split it into two
halves and discovered 103 small white seeds with so much
potential.
2. 5 years of very successful harvests produced 11,592,740,743
green bell peppers!
3. The graph below depicts the exponential growth of bell peppers
over a 5-year period. Each pepper produced 103 seeds each
year. The graph shows how quickly population growth can occur.
4. In our perfect pepper world, no peppers are lost. In the real world
environmental factors surround us. Today we worry about natural
resources such as water. We depend on plants that rely on water.
Over population is a major worry for all living things. If over
population occurs, other environmental factors come into play as
well. Things like space, competition/predation, are all things that
are effected by over population. Overharvesting is another
environmental factor that has a negative effect on population.
5. If water were the environmental factor we were looking at we
would see a major decline in the population, this would have
negative effects on other populations. If overpopulation were to
occur with bell peppers we would see a rapid growth and then a
rapid decline in the species. Not only would we see a decrease in
bell peppers, we would see a decrease in other populations as
well. All of these factors decrease population size in the long
run.

Biology 1120: Conservation Biology

Jessica Moon

Perfect Pepper Paper

1000000000000
10000000000
100000000
1000000
10000
100
1
0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

5.5

The graph shown above depicts the exponential growth of green

peppers. Starting with 103 seeds from the original pepper. This
example shows an exponential population growth over 5 years
given that there would be zero peppers lost.