Final answer:
The term 'limited resources' explains why individuals in a population need to be well adapted in order to survive. This scarcity breeds competition within species, with better-adapted individuals being more likely to reproduce and pass on their adaptive traits, illustrating the process of natural selection and the influences on population change.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is because of limited resources that members of a population need to be well adapted to their environment in order to survive. The concept of limited resources is essential to understanding natural selection and population ecology. In the context of the natural world, resources such as food, water, shelter, and mates, are often not abundant enough to sustain all individuals within a population. This scarcity leads to intraspecific competition, where individuals of the same species compete for the limited resources.
The variation in genetic makeup among individuals results in different levels of adaptation to a given environment. Those who are better adapted are more successful at survival and reproduction, thus passing on their advantageous genes to their offspring. This is the core of evolutionary theory, where the environment acts as a selective pressure, amplifying traits that improve survival and reproductive success over time.
When changes occur in the environment, whether they are gradual or abrupt, the concept of variable adaptation becomes even more crucial. Individuals that happen to be genetically equipped to handle these changes are more likely to endure and reproduce. Over generations, this can lead to a population that becomes increasingly specialized for the new conditions, illustrating the concept of natural selection.
The logistic growth model, which takes into account carrying capacity, helps ecologists understand how populations grow and stabilize in consideration of resource availability. Carrying capacity is defined as the maximum population size that an environment can sustain indefinitely. When populations approach their carrying capacity, the competition for resources intensifies, and those less adapted may not survive.