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Title: Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology Post by: Ashmo on Apr 11, 2011 One factor favoring rapid population growth of an introduced species is the absence of the predators, parasites, and pathogens that controlled its population in the region where it evolved. Over the long term, how should evolution by natural selection influence the rate at which the native predators, parasites, and pathogens in the region of introduction attack the introduced species?
Title: Re: Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology Post by: bio_man on Apr 12, 2011 Natural selection tells us that individuals with inherited characteristics well-suited to their environment leave more offspring on average than do individuals with adaptations less suited to the environment. So the introduced predator may produce a large amount of offspring at first, but eventually those offspring will run out of resources (remember Malthus?), and so eventually the population will level off once all their resources are used - remember, resources, such as food, is a limiting factor to population growth with all species, including humans, bugs, trees, animals, etc.
Remember, if this answers your question, please mark this topic as solved. Title: Re: Conservation Biology and Restoration Ecology Post by: duddy on Apr 12, 2011 Content hidden
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