What is meant by the term ‘carrying capacity’ with respect to an ecosystem?

Answer 1

Carrying capacity, typically represented by the variable "k", means the amount of a population that can be supported by that ecosystem.

If you have enough resources to support roughly 100 individuals of a population, then your carrying capacity is k = 100.

Carrying capacity CAN change, however. Suppose a wildfire destroyed the resources necessary to support 100 individuals and now only 10 individuals can be supported. Your new carrying capacity would be k = 10.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Hi Rochelle,

1. And that one means, the number of individuals that can exist as a steady-state population in an ecosystem, usually assuming all other animal populations vary naturally.
2. Of course, if the other animal populations include predators, you may have a calculation issue (cyclical populations). In that case, just compute via the available food for that species over the year, divided by the consumption of food per individual of the species. So if there were 1 metric ton of renewable biomass available for consumption, and an individual requires 100 kg biomass over the course of a year, then 1000 kg/100 kg = 10 individuals are supported.
3. -- Cheers, --Mr. d.