With geometric increase, plants and animals will breed to the limits of the environment’s carrying capacity. Darwin cites Malthus as inspiration for this line of thinking.
But we can go back even further. Adam Smith talks about the same idea.
Again, a clear notion of the carrying capacity of the environment, and that species will multiply until they reach that limit.
This is a pretty simple observation, so I imagine it could’ve turned up various places. But still, I’m wondering how far back it goes, what the earliest mention is, of the notion that species will expand their numbers until they reach their environmental limits.
Well, it’s a weird question. It just felt odd to me that the earliest example I could personally think of was from Adam Smith, of all people. I figured there was an early 18th century naturalist somewhere who had made the observation, or maybe someone from antiquity.
But I guess even if that were true, it’d be very difficult to dig up a precise quote.