Re: Definitions requested

[ornstn@inforamp.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>
> > From: Gertsch <lgertsch@slate.Mines.EDU>
> > 
> > What do "r-selected" and "K-selected" mean?

To add to Sta Friesen's (correct) explanation:

r= intrinsic rate of natural increase (ie the rate at which an unchecked
population of the species would increase with no limiting environmental factors)

K=carrying capacity

Thus an r-selected species "assumes" that the more young it churns out the
better chance some will have of surviving; a K-selected species is adapted
to limitations in the environment, so invests more in smaller brood sizes.

You could argue (I have) that a lot of mankind's problems arise from the
fact that as we spread across the world we acted in some ways like an
r-selected species - the more aggressively we opened new frontiers the
better we did.  Now that we have run out of frontiers those tendencies are
just the ones that keep us from adapting to a limited earth (in other words,
acting like a K-selected species).  A very crude analogy, but there you have
it....
--
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