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Nature employs a variety of strategies to limit population growth. These variables or factors are classed as density-dependent factors, which influence population growth and mortality based on population density, and density-independent factors, which influence population mortality irrespective of population density.

• Population regulation is highly complicated because density-dependent and density-independent variables can interact in real-life situations.
• A dense population that is negatively affected by environmental factors in a density-independent manner recovers differently than a sparse population.
• The deer population, For example, can recover after a brutal winter because there are more animals left to spawn.
• The interaction between density-dependent and density-independent variables can aid in population recovery.