Carrying capacity

Maximum population size of a species that an ecosystem can support

The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the maximum population size of a living biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available, over a fixed amount of time. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment's maximal load, which in population ecology corresponds to the population equilibrium, when the number of deaths in a population equals the number of births (as well as immigration and emigration). Carrying capacity of the environment implies that the resources extraction is not above the rate of regeneration of the resources and the wastes generated are within the assimilating capacity of the environment.

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