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Every Environment Has a Ceiling on How Many Individuals It Can Support
- An environment can only supply a limited amount of food, water, space, light, and nutrients.
- The maximum population size these resources can support over the long term is called the carrying capacity, written as K.
Carrying Capacity: The Maximum a Habitat Can Sustain
Definition
Carrying capacity
Carrying capacity is the maximum population size that an ecosystem can sustain indefinitely without degrading the habitat.
- Carrying capacity is the number of individuals of a species that a habitat can support indefinitely.
- It is set by whichever resource runs short first, known as the limiting resource.
- K is not a fixed number.
- It rises or falls when resource levels change through drought, deforestation, pollution, or a good growing season.
Common Mistake
- Carrying capacity is not the largest population ever recorded.
- It is the level a habitat can sustain over time, not a temporary peak.
Limiting Resources Differ for Plants and Animals
- Plants: light, water, and mineral nutrients.
- Taller plants shade smaller ones, cutting their photosynthesis.
- Soil minerals such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are often in short supply.
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- C4.1.5 Carrying capacity and competition for limited resources
- C4.1.6 Negative feedback control of population size by density-dependent factors
- C4.1.7 Population growth curves
- C4.1.8 Modelling of the sigmoid population growth curve