Question

How does carrying capacity affect the number of organisms in an ecosystem?

Answer 1

The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be supported by that environment provided with the available food, habitat, water, and other resources. If the available resources are not adequate then the population size will decrease.

Complete answer:
Ecology takes a holistic approach to biology, emphasizing the importance of diversity. The foundation of biological understanding is to comprehend how entities, while living as individuals, interact with their physical surroundings and other species in a geographical location, thereby contributing to an organized structure on the whole, which are – individual, population, community, ecosystem, and ultimately – ecosystem.

Temperature, light, soil, and water are the most important physical factors to which entities adapt in various ways. Population-level evolution is observed, which is an important aspect of ecology.

The carrying capacity is directly dependent on the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem. In a population at its maximum carrying capacity, the number of species are maximum which the ecosystem can support. If the factors like food, habitat, water, mate increases then the carrying capacity increases. These factors are called the limiting factors which determine the size of the population.

Note: The population size will increase to an extent until carrying capacity is reached.The size of the population is self-regulating. When the size of the population exceeds the carrying capacity, death rate increases. This helps in maintaining an equilibrium in the ecosystem.