March 17

Rabbit Population & Limiting Factors 🐇📊

📅 Lesson Overview:
In this activity, students used a Gizmo simulation to explore how limiting factors affect rabbit populations over time. They examined the role of carrying capacity, density-dependent factors, and density-independent factors in shaping population growth.

📝 What We Covered:

1️⃣ What Determines Population Size?

• A population is a group of individuals of the same species in an area.

• Limiting factors control population growth by affecting the availability of resources, space, and survival rates.

2️⃣ Carrying Capacity

• Carrying capacity is the maximum number of organisms an environment can support.

• In the simulation, students observed how the rabbit population fluctuated over several years.

• Key findings:
  ✅ Population grows rapidly but eventually stabilizes.
  ✅ When resources become limited, population growth slows or declines.

3️⃣ Density-Dependent Limiting Factors

• These factors increase in effect as population size grows.

• Examples:
  ✅ Food availability – More rabbits require more food; if food runs out, the population declines.
  ✅ Predation – More rabbits attract more predators, limiting growth.
  ✅ Disease & competition – Spread faster in larger populations.

4️⃣ Density-Independent Limiting Factors

• These factors affect a population regardless of its size.

• Examples:
  ✅ Harsh winters can reduce the population by limiting food and survival rates.
  ✅ Droughts or floods can affect the availability of water and shelter.
  ✅ Human activities like habitat destruction can lower population numbers.

• Students compared normal weather conditions to extreme weather scenarios and analyzed how the rabbit population responded.

📌 Activity Details:

✅ Gizmo Simulation – Modeled rabbit populations under different conditions.
✅ Graph Analysis – Tracked population changes over multiple years.
✅ Data Interpretation – Compared results with different limiting factors (food, space, weather).
✅ Discussion & Predictions – Explained why some factors impact populations more than others.

🌍 Why This Matters:

Understanding how populations grow and decline is key to managing wildlife conservation, ecosystem stability, and species survival. Scientists use similar models to track endangered species, predict environmental impacts, and develop conservation plans.

✅ Great job analyzing population dynamics! Keep thinking about how resources, climate, and competition shape the natural world. 🌎📈✨