Final answer:
Opportunistic growth represents rapid reproduction in favorable conditions, akin to exponential growth, while equilibrium growth pertains to logistic growth, where species stabilize around an environment's carrying capacity. Examples include bacteria and insects for opportunistic growth, and yeast and harbor seals for equilibrium growth patterns.
Step-by-step explanation:
Opportunistic and equilibrium growth patterns represent two distinct strategies organisms employ to survive in their environments. Opportunistic growth, often equated with exponential growth, occurs when a species takes advantage of favorable conditions to reproduce quickly and in large numbers. This type of growth is typically seen in environments that are unpredictable, where the possibility of future survival is uncertain. Examples include bacteria thriving on an abundance of nutrients or insects having a population boom after a disturbance that leaves resources unused.Equilibrium growth patterns, on the other hand, are associated with logistic growth. Species exhibiting equilibrium strategies tend to grow slowly, stabilize near the carrying capacity of their environment, and invest heavily in each offspring's survival. Examples of logistic growth include yeast grown in a test tube showing the S-shaped curve and wild populations such as sheep and harbor seals that oscillate around the environment's carrying capacity.Carrying capacity changes can occur due to environmental shifts, which in turn affect population dynamics. Yeast growth levels off as they deplete necessary nutrients, whereas populations like harbor seals fluctuate around the carrying capacity of their ecosystem, demonstrating the real-world variance from idealized logistic growth curves.