Why can humans generally harvest renewable resources of plants and animals sustainably?

Humans can generally harvest renewable resources of plants and animals sustainably primarily because organisms produce more offspring than needed. This concept is fundamental to sustainable resource management as it allows for a surplus of individuals in a population. When a species can reproduce at a rate that exceeds the number of individuals removed from the ecosystem through harvesting, the population can maintain its numbers over time, ensuring that the resource remains available for future generations.

This surplus also provides a buffer against environmental changes or other stressors that may affect population numbers. Sustainable harvesting practices aim to take advantage of these dynamics, allowing for utilization without depleting the resource.

While the other options touch on aspects of ecological dynamics, they do not capture the essence of sustainability in resource harvesting as effectively. The idea that new species evolve to replace harvested ones (the second option) does not guarantee that the harvested species will continue to be available, and it doesn't account for the ecological and evolutionary timescales involved. Ecosystems changing with new species (the third option) is a natural process, but not all changes support sustainable harvesting of a particular species. The fourth option suggests a best practice in harvesting timelines but does not address the critical reason for sustainability: the reproductive capacity of the species involved. Thus, the foundational principle