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Carrying capacity. The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment 's maximal load, [clarification needed] which in population ...
Overshoot (population) In environmental science, a population "overshoots" its local carrying capacity — the capacity of the biome to feed and sustain that population — when that population has not only begun to outstrip its food supply in excess of regeneration, but actually shot past that point, setting up a potentially catastrophic crash ...
In a population, carrying capacity is known as the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain, which is determined by resources available. In many classic population models, r is represented as the intrinsic growth rate, where K is the carrying capacity, and N0 is the initial population size.
Ecological overshoot. Ecological overshoot expressed in terms of how many Earths equivalent of natural resources are consumed by humanity each year. Ecological overshoot is the phenomenon which occurs when the demands made on a natural ecosystem exceed its regenerative capacity. Global ecological overshoot occurs when the demands made by ...
r. /. K. selection theory. A North Atlantic right whale with solitary calf. Whale reproduction follows a K -selection strategy, with few offspring, long gestation, long parental care, and a long period until sexual maturity. In ecology, r/K selection theory relates to the selection of combinations of traits in an organism that trade off between ...
Global biocapacity' is a term sometimes used to describe the total capacity of an ecosystem to support various continuous activity and changes. When the ecological footprint of a population exceeds the biocapacity of the environment it lives in, this is called an 'biocapacity deficit'. Such a deficit comes from three sources: overusing one's ...
Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species ' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migration, leading to an overabundant species and other animals in the ecosystem competing for food ...
The ecological footprint measures human demand on natural capital, i.e. the quantity of nature it takes to support people and their economies. [1] [2] [3] It tracks human demand on nature through an ecological accounting system. The accounts contrast the biologically productive area people use to satisfy their consumption to the biologically ...