Which scenario best illustrates the concept of carrying capacity?

Carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of individuals in a population that an environment can sustainably support without degrading the resources available. The chosen scenario vividly illustrates this concept because it describes a population that eventually stabilizes after reaching the limits imposed by its environment's resources, such as food, water, and habitat space.

When a population grows, it typically experiences exponential growth in its initial stages, but as it approaches its carrying capacity, growth rates tend to decrease due to limitations on resources. This leads to a leveling off of the population size, a phenomenon that reflects the balance between the population's reproductive rate and the environmental constraints it faces. The dynamics of competition for limited resources, predation, disease, and other environmental factors contribute to this stabilization at the carrying capacity.

In contrast, the other scenarios depict populations that either continue to grow indefinitely, decline without the influence of resource limits, or expand into new territories without acknowledging the concept of resource availability. They do not encapsulate the essence of carrying capacity, which fundamentally hinges on the balance between population needs and resource availability.