4.8) Delay, Overshoot And Collapse

Where the carrying capacity is an endogenous part of the system, it can be degraded by an overshoot in population. This could be caused by the carrying capacity being determined by a resource, the depletion of which reduces the carrying capacity.

(Source: Sterman, J.D. "Business Dynamics: Systems thinking and modelling for a complex world", McGraw Hill, 2000.)

An example of this type of behaviour is the case of overgrazing – a population grows by feeding on grasslands but once the population grows too large the grasslands are destroyed by overgrazing and lack of food causes a collapse in the population.