Factors that decrease population growth can be defined as environmental stress including limitations in food, predation, and other density-dependant factors (Sibley & Hone 2002). However, many sources of environmental stress affect population growth, irrespective of the density of the population.

Limiting factors determine carrying capacity. The availability of abiotic factors (such as water, oxygen, and space) and biotic factors (such as food) dictates how many organisms can live in an ecosystem. Carrying capacity is also impacted by the availability of decomposers.

9C. What factors might cause the carrying capacity of a population to change? When the birth rate and death rate are the same, when immigration equals emigration, and when population growth stops.

Limiting factors can lower birth rates, increase death rates, or lead to emigration. When organisms face limiting factors, they show logistic growth (S-shaped curve, curve B: Figure below). Competition for resources like food and space cause the growth rate to stop increasing, so the population levels off.

Some examples of limiting factors are biotic, like food, mates, and competition with other organisms for resources. Others are abiotic, like space, temperature, altitude, and amount of sunlight available in an environment. Limiting factors are usually expressed as a lack of a particular resource.

Different limiting factors affect the ecosystem. They are (1) keystone species, (2) predators, (3) energy, (4) available space, and (5) food supply.

Limiting factors fall into two broad categories: density-dependent factors and density-independent factors.

Limiting factors can also be split into further categories. Physical factors or abiotic factors include temperature, water availability, oxygen, salinity, light, food and nutrients; biological factors or biotic factors, involve interactions between organisms such as predation, competition, parasitism and herbivory.

Limiting factors are those factors which limits the growth in the ecosystem. It is important to know what the limiting factor is for the limiting factors greatly affects the growth of the plants. Not considering these limiting factors would result in the failure of growing the plants in a greenhouse.

The lack of carbon dioxide, not water is the limiting factor. High levels of oxygen in leaf cells reduce the amount of carbon dioxide converted during photosynthesis. A build up of oxygen will slow down reaction rate. Photosynthesis increases if the amount of oxygen is decreased.

Carrying capacity, or the maximum number of individuals that an environment can sustain over time without destroying or degrading the environment, is determined by a few key factors: food availability, water, and space.

Most organisms can do little to change the carrying capacity of their environments, but humans have. The historical pattern of human population growth shows the effect of breakthroughs that essentially allowed increases in K.

Video Review. The world’s human population is growing at an exponential rate. Humans have increased the world’s carrying capacity through migration, agriculture, medical advances, and communication. The age structure of a population allows us to predict population growth.

Complete step by step answer: The most important factor for the success of the animal population on the earth is their ability to adapt to a given environment or show adaptability.

Water (H2O) is a very important abiotic factor – it is often said that “water is life.” All living organisms need water. Plants must have water to grow. Even plants that live in the desert need a little bit of water to grow. Without water, animals become weak and confused, and they can die if they do not rehydrate.

Finally, studying population growth gives scientists insight into how organisms interact with each other and with their environments. This is especially meaningful when considering the potential impacts of climate change and other changes in environmental factors (how will populations respond to changing temperatures?

As competition increases and resources become increasingly scarce, populations reach the carrying capacity (K) of their environment, causing their growth rate to slow nearly to zero. This produces an S-shaped curve of population growth known as the logistic curve (right).

Summary

• Limiting factors, or things in the environment that can lower the population growth rate, include low food supply and lack of space.
• When organisms face limiting factors, they show logistic type of growth (S-curve).

In a population at its carrying capacity, there are as many organisms of that species as the habitat can support. If resources are being used faster than they are being replenished, then the species has exceeded its carrying capacity. If this occurs, the population will then decrease in size.

Answer: Biotic and abiotic factors both determine that a population can live or not in a particular place. Abiotic factors include air, water, soil, minerals, temperature et cetera. The basic needs of any living organism include air, water, food and shelter which can not be fulfilled without these abiotic factors.

Reproduction rates may remain high relative to the death rate. Entire ecosystems may be severely affected and sometimes reduced to less-complex states due to prolonged overshoot. The eradication of disease can trigger overshoot when a population suddenly exceeds the land’s carrying capacity.

Population growth rate depends on birth rates and death rates, as well as migration. If the birth and death rates are equal, then the population size will not change. Factors that affect population growth are: Age of organisms at first reproduction.

Births, deaths and migration.

The two factors that increase the size of a population are natality, which is the number of individuals that are added to the population over a period of time due to reproduction, and immigration, which is the migration of an individual into a place.