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A growth curve is an empirical model of the evolution of a quantity over time. Growth curves are widely used in biology for quantities such as population size or biomass (in population ecology and demography , for population growth analysis), individual body height or biomass (in physiology , for growth analysis of individuals).
Using these techniques, Malthus' population principle of growth was later transformed into a mathematical model known as the logistic equation: = (), where N is the population size, r is the intrinsic rate of natural increase, and K is the carrying capacity of the population. The formula can be read as follows: the rate of change in the ...
P 0 = P(0) is the initial population size, r = the population growth rate, which Ronald Fisher called the Malthusian parameter of population growth in The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, [2] and Alfred J. Lotka called the intrinsic rate of increase, [3] [4] t = time. The model can also be written in the form of a differential equation:
The standard logistic function is the logistic function with parameters =, =, =, which yields = + = + = / / + /.In practice, due to the nature of the exponential function, it is often sufficient to compute the standard logistic function for over a small range of real numbers, such as a range contained in [−6, +6], as it quickly converges very close to its saturation values of 0 and 1.
Biological exponential growth is the unrestricted growth of a population of organisms, occurring when resources in its habitat are unlimited. [1] Most commonly apparent in species that reproduce quickly and asexually , like bacteria , exponential growth is intuitive from the fact that each organism can divide and produce two copies of itself.
One of the most basic and milestone models of population growth was the logistic model of population growth formulated by Pierre François Verhulst in 1838. The logistic model takes the shape of a sigmoid curve and describes the growth of a population as exponential, followed by a decrease in growth, and bound by a carrying capacity due to ...
Population biology is especially concerned with the Gompertz function. This function is especially useful in describing the rapid growth of a certain population of organisms while also being able to account for the eventual horizontal asymptote, once the carrying capacity is determined (plateau cell/population number). It is modeled as follows:
Thomas Robert Malthus, after whom Malthusianism is named. Malthusianism is a theory that population growth is potentially exponential, according to the Malthusian growth model, while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of triggering a population decline.