Which factor defines the maximum rate at which a population could increase under ideal conditions?

The maximum rate at which a population could increase under ideal conditions is defined by biotic potential. This concept refers to the maximum reproductive capacity of an organism under optimal environmental conditions, which are characterized by an absence of limiting factors such as food scarcity, predation, disease, and competition.

Biotic potential encompasses various reproductive traits, including the number of offspring per breeding cycle, reproductive frequency, age at first reproduction, and survival rates of offspring. In an ideal environment, where all conditions favor growth and reproduction, populations can grow exponentially until other factors eventually come into play.

In contrast, carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of individuals that an environment can sustainably support, factoring in limited resources and ecological constraints. Stabilizing and disruptive selections are forms of natural selection related to population genetics, describing how certain traits become more or less common in a population over time but do not specifically address rates of population increase.