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

Green Bell Pepper Initial Seed Count (First Generation: 298

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

Frist Generation: 115

Second Generation: 13,225

Third Generation: 150,875

Fourth Generation: 174,900,625

Fifth Generation: 20,113,571,875

EXPONENTIAL POPULATION GROWTH

2.5E+10

2E+10
NUMBER OF PLANTS

1.5E+10

1E+10

5E+09

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
GENERATION (YEARS)
 EXPONENTIAL POPULATION GROWTH
(LOG SCALE)
1E+11
20113571875

1E+10

1E+09
174900625

100000000
NUMBER OF PLANTS

10000000
1520875

1000000

100000
13225
10000

1000
115
100
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
10

1
GENERATION (YEARS)

3. Describe your graph.

The graph above shows the exponential growth of my pepper plant over the course of five
generations. Starting the first generation with 115 seeds. Assuming that the first generation and it’s
seedlings have no deaths and no mutations we can see by that fifth generation there are 20,113,571,875
pepper plants!

In the top graph you can see the “J-curve” indicating the exponential growth while below is a
logarithmic scale graph showing the growth rate of my pepper plant.
4. Make a list of five environmental factors that might limit natural or wild populations (not necessarily
pepper plant or human populations).

 Temperature or Climate Change: a species may only be able to survive in a certain temperature
range.
 Disease: a disease or parasite could limit the ability of a species to survive and successfully
reproduce
 Predation: a species could have a predator that limits its survival.
 Competition: a species could be forced to compete for resources such as water or food.
 Limited Resources: a species could exceed the carrying capacity of the environment to provide
enough resources for survival.

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. BE SPECIFIC – which factors would cause which changes?

If a population continued to grow, it would eventually hit and then surpass the carrying capacity.
Once the carrying capacity is surpassed the environment can no long support that species needs for
food, water and other necessities vital for species survival. At that point, the size of the population
would drop as only those individuals most suited for the environmental conditions would survive and
reproduce. This could also occur if a species were competing for certain resources like food or water
with another species, only that species which is most successful in obtaining resources would thrive.

Temperature changes could dramatically affect a species population as well. For instance, some
species of penguins are adapted to survive in constant colder temperatures. However, if the
temperature were to increase in those areas where a cold climate penguin lives, it would not have the
ability to regulate their body temperatures to compensate for the warmer climates and this could be
fatal.