In logistic growth, how does population growth change as it nears carrying capacity?

In logistic growth, as a population approaches its carrying capacity, the growth rate of the population decreases. This phenomenon occurs because the carrying capacity represents the maximum number of individuals that an environment can sustainably support, given the available resources such as food, habitat, and other necessities.

At lower population densities, resources are more plentiful, allowing for rapid population growth. However, as the population grows and nears the carrying capacity, competition for these limited resources increases. As a result, factors such as food scarcity, increased competition, and environmental stress lead to a decline in the birth rate and/or an increase in the death rate, ultimately slowing the population growth.

When examining the other choices, steady growth would imply that the population continues to grow at the same rate regardless of resource limitations, which does not occur in a logistic model. An increase in population growth contradicts the fundamentals of logistic growth, where limited resources drive a decline in growth rates. A population crash typically refers to a sudden decline in population size, often due to overshooting the carrying capacity and subsequent resource depletion, rather than the gradual tapering off seen in logistic growth as it approaches carrying capacity.