Britannica Sources used in this answer

What does the midpoint of a logistic growth curve represent?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Common wildebeest — population ecology A herd of common wildebeest (*Connochaetes taurinus*) migrating across a dusty savanna in Africa. The animal is a keystone species (i.e., a species with a disproportionately large effect on its biological community) in plains and acacia savanna ecosystems from southeastern Africa to central Kenya.

In the context of population ecology, the midpoint of a logistic growth curve represents the point of inflection where the population's growth rate transitions from an accelerating phase to a decelerating phase.1

Specifically, at this midpoint ( $t_{0}$ ), the curve shifts from positive curvature—characterized by increasing exponential growth—to negative curvature, where growth begins to slow as the population approaches the environment's carrying capacity ( $L$ or $K$ ). While the population continues to increase after this point, it does so at a decreasing rate until it eventually stabilizes.12