Question

What is exponential growth in ecology?

Answer 1

In general, exponential growth occurs when the derivative of a function at a given point is proportional to the function's value. Within the biological sciences, one often sees exponential growth/decay (decay will occur when the derivative is negative) with regards to population; human population, for example, increases exponentially, as does the population of organisms in a bacterial culture.

However, within most ecosystems, population does not simply increase unbounded. There will be certain restrictions, such as carrying capacity (how large a population the region can support with the available resources) and predator-prey interactions.