What is population holding capacity in reference to environmental science?

An example of a population growing exponentially that exceeded its carrying capacity occurred on Saint Paul.?

• Island of the coast of Alaska in the early part of the century. Reindeer were introduced to replace the native caribou which had been hunted to extinction. The reindeer found the island suitable to their needs and their population exploded. After the crash, the population started to grow again and has reached a stable size of 250 in the heard. a. What might be some reasons for the giant increase in population in population over such a short period of time? b. What would have caused the dramatic decrease in reindeer populations? c. What would have happened had a predator been introduced to this area? d. What is the new carrying capacity of this system? e. Research 2 other areas where the introduction of a non-native organism has created problems for the ecosystem. What was the organism, why was it introduced, and what effects have it had?

• Answer:

  a. lack of natural predators,( I am assuming hunting was banned after the caribou went extinct) There may have also been an abundance of food since the caribou were gone whatever they ate had no natural a predator. b. a dramatic decrease might be caused by an increase in predators or a decrease in food. Add hunters or remove their food source. c. It depends what kind of predator, how many, and how they acted on the reindeer population. However, they would likely either reduce the population to a new carrying capacity or more. d. The new carrying capacity would likely be lower with the new predator than with no predator. e. lionfish were washed out of a zoo and quickly took over areas in the Caribbean because they had no predators in this area, and lots of things to feed on. http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/2009/articles/lionfish_invasion.html Zebra mussels in the great lakes are also an example of a non native invasive species. http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/pollution/ans/ans_2.html Hope this helps! Good luck!