How do density-independent factors affect a population's size?

Density-independent factors are environmental influences that impact a population's size without considering the population's density or size. These factors can include natural events such as weather conditions, natural disasters, and climate changes.

For example, a drought can reduce the available water supply, affecting all organisms in an ecosystem regardless of how many individuals are present. Similarly, a flood can decimate habitats and food sources, impacting large and small populations alike. This unpredictability and lack of dependence on population density is precisely what distinguishes density-independent factors from density-dependent factors, which do vary based on population density.

Thus, these factors can lead to sudden changes in population size, but their impacts do not rely on how many individuals are present in the population at the time.