Final answer:
The S-curve characteristic refers to the logistic growth model, starting with rapid growth, then slowing down as resources become limited, and finally stabilizing at the environment's carrying capacity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The characteristic of an S-curve often pertains to the logistic growth model in biology. It describes the way populations grow in an environment with limited resources. The logistic growth curve starts with an exponential growth phase where there are abundant resources for the few individuals in the population, leading to rapid population increase. This is followed by a decelerated growth phase where growth slows down as resources become scarce. Eventually, the growth rate levels off as the population reaches the carrying capacity of the environment, which is the maximum population size that the environment can sustain long term. Throughout this process, the S-curve model realistically illustrates how populations stabilize over time due to resource limitations.