Figure 3. Response of r- and K-selected species to environmental stress.

Panel A: r-species recover from environmental stress optimizing growth rate and productivity, while K-selected species resist environmental change by optimizing their efficiency when resources are scarce. Panel B: Following a large and sudden perturbation in which both r- and K-selected species suffer diminished in population levels, the r-selected species can rapidly bloom and dominate the environment due to utilization of unused resources, whereas the recovery from K-selected species is slower. During a longer, sustained environmental stress, K-selected species can resist large population losses because of their high-efficiency adaptation strategies, whereas r-selected species are more constrained to maintain populations, and suffer losses.