Density Dependence

Density dependence describes the way a population's growth rate is influenced by how crowded that population is, meaning that birth rates, death rates, or other vital rates change as a function of population density rather than staying constant. Negative density dependence is the more familiar form: as a population becomes more crowded, competition among individuals for food, space, or other resources intensifies, reducing each individual's average reproductive contribution, as seen in parasitic worms whose females produce fewer eggs as infection intensity rises. Density dependence can also work in the opposite direction, since a higher population density can raise the chances that individuals successfully find mates, illustrating that crowding can help as well as hinder a population depending on the process involved. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/