Population Growth Assignment

Year Plants

1 86

2 7,396

3 54,700,816

4 292,179,271,065,860

5 8.95E+30

1. How many seeds were in your initial pepper? This represents the first generation.

There were 86 seeds in my initial pepper.

2. How many plants were alive in your pepper population after only 5 generations?

8.95E+30
3. Describe your graph in detail. Be sure to include whether it represents logistic or
exponential growth and describe what happens in each generation.

The graph contains generations 1 through 5 on the X-axis and the amount of plants on
the Y-axis. The graph represents an exponential growth of the plants. Each generation
is squared which causes large increases between each generation.

4. Describe four or five environmental factors that might limit natural or wild populations
(not necessarily pepper plant populations).

● Predator and prey relationships

● Amount of space
● Amount of food/water available
● Amount of competition for resources

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?
Explain the changes or lack of change in at least three full sentences.

If a population was subjected to these environmental factors for a long period of time it
would cause a “leveling off” of the population as it reaches its carrying capacity. This is
due to the environmental factors, such as lack of resources, limiting the population.
Other environmental factors limit the population as well since no population can
continue to grow exponentially forever.