Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Limiting factor. A limiting factor is a variable of a system that causes a noticeable change in output or another measure of a type of system. The limiting factor is in a pyramid shape of organisms going up from the producers to consumers and so on. A factor not limiting over a certain domain of starting conditions may yet be limiting over ...
Liebig's law states that growth only occurs at the rate permitted by the most limiting factor. [2] For instance, in the equation below, the growth of population O {\displaystyle O} is a function of the minimum of three Michaelis-Menten terms representing limitation by factors I {\displaystyle I} , N {\displaystyle N} and P {\displaystyle P} .
Ecological niche. The flightless dung beetle occupies an ecological niche: exploiting animal droppings as a food source. In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. [1] [2] It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when ...
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 ...
Marginal distribution (biology) The geographical limits to the distribution of a species are determined by biotic or abiotic factors. Core populations are those occurring within the centre of the range, and marginal populations (also called peripheral populations) are found at the boundary of the range. The inability of a species to expand its ...
A low level of one factor can sometimes be partially compensated for by appropriate levels of other factors. In case of chemical reactions it is known as law of limiting factor. A corollary to this is that two factors may work synergistically (e.g. 1 + 1 = 5), to make a habitat favorable or unfavorable. Geographic distribution of sugar maple.
Competition (biology) Competition is an interaction between organisms or species in which both require a resource that is in limited supply (such as food, water, or territory ). [1] Competition lowers the fitness of both organisms involved since the presence of one of the organisms always reduces the amount of the resource available to the other.
In ecology, the competitive exclusion principle, [1] sometimes referred to as Gause's law, [2] is a proposition that two species which compete for the same limited resource cannot coexist at constant population values. When one species has even the slightest advantage over another, the one with the advantage will dominate in the long term.