Carrying capacity

In population ecology, carrying capacity is the maximum stable population of a given species in a specified environment. This will depend on the resources available in such as environment, such as food or space. At low populations, the number of organisms tends to increase exponentially, but due to increasing environmental stress as resources become scarce, this slows down and eventually stops; a logistic growth curve is seen. Carrying capacity can change over time, for example if an organism degrades its environment, it can lower its future carrying capacity.

See also

• Human population
• Limiting resource
• R/k selection theory