With no limiting factors, fish populations would increase at an exponential rate. However, in a working ecosystem fish population growth is limited by such factors as competition, food availability, predation, climate conditions, and exploitation. Students should form an understanding of how limiting factors affect fish populations. If no limiting factors affected the fish, the numbers of male and female trout are equal. Females produce 20 eggs a year, all of which hatch with equal numbers of males and females.
Females mature to reproduce in one year.
Compute the size of the population for years 1 - 3 limiting factors such as competition, food availability, predation, climate, and exploitation resulted in 1000 offspring being produced each year by the trout population. For more information about educational resources at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, send email to Dave Kronk. This activity guide was made possible by a grant from the National Park Foundation, Administered by Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, July 1997.