Re-thinking Carrying Capacity Arguments
The notion of carrying capacity is a "shorthand" for what keeps populations in check at a certain level. It is the level at which they reach equilibrium. If we re-think this we realize that herbivore populations are kept in check by the food available to them and by the predators that prey upon them.
Predators and food for herbivores are kept in check by herbivores. Herbivores prey upon vegetation and predators cannot live unless there are herbivores to eat.
A new model is necessary. A model where food, herbivores and predators are in a linked ecological system.
Back to the Holmes and Watson conversation
To the earlier exploration - "The Pleistocene Holocene Transition - The Case of the Arboricidal Megaherbivores"