What is a Limiting Factor?
A limiting factor refers to any condition that is required by a species which becomes insufficient or absent in a habitat. When particular needs are not met individuals of the population start to die off or fertility becomes inhibited. Some common examples of limiting factors are food, water, predation or lack thereof, water, shelter, gases i.e. oxygen, and organic chemical compounds. In some cases, a limiting factor can refer to a condition that is too abundant such as excessive sunlight for a particular species of plant. The limiting factor works as a control that prevents unchecked growth in a population or can be one that causes a population to decline and disappear from a habitat. Most of the time, a limiting factor is beneficial to an ecosystem. For example, a limiting factor that controls one species, such as a predator, can in turn benefit another such as its prey. If the predatory species were not controlled by a particular limiting factor then the prey species would become se
How is the idea of limiting factors related to tolerance theory? • Consider the tolerance of an organism to two abiotic factors. Draw a graph that would represent tolerances to these factors interacting with one another, and a graph that would represent tolerances to these factors NOT interacting with one another. • Tolerance curves are usually developed to describe how an animal survives in different conditions. With regard to conditions in the natural world where populations can occur, what information in addition to survival are ecologists really interested in? Why don’t we get that information, rather than just survival? • An aquatic organism is said to be “stenohaline”. “haline” refers to salinity (salt concentration.) What can you say about the range of salinities that this organism can tolerate? • Draw a graph that illustrates the difference between an eurytopic organism and a stenotopic organism. • Define “conformer” and “regulator” and draw a graph that represents the two stra
