3.4 Carrying Capacity

What is carrying capacity?

The maximum number of individuals in a pop. an ecosystem can support based on limiting resources

What are the limiting resources?

food, water, and habitat

An “overshoot” in a population indicates what?

a population has briefly exceeded its carrying capacity

What are the consequences of an “overshoot”

resource depletion, habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, and increased competition for limited resources among species

What is “die-off” in a population?

it’s a sharp decline in pop. size due to resource depletion caused by the “overshoot” that leads to many animals dying

Real pops. don’t fluctuate around…

carrying capacity, if resource is severe enough, total pop. crash can occur