Carrying+Capacity

==Key concept: carrying capacity==

The number of animals a given area of land or water can support over time is called that area’s carrying capacity. Consider this illustration representing Puritan tiger beetles in their cliff habitait. The barrel represents the habitat - the amount of food, water, and cover for a fixed number of tiger beetles. The water in the barrel is the number of individuals the habitat can support. The pipe pouring water into the barrel represents the new larvae that are hatched from eggs in cliff burrows or that migrate in from other local populations. The water spilling out is the number of larvae and adult Puritan tiger beetles that die each year due to starvation, predators, disease, or human factors. The barrel can only hold so much water. That is, there is a limit to the number of tiger beetles that can survive here from year to year unless the habitat (the size of the barrel) is improved in some way. Every parcel of land has a different carrying capacity for every different kind of oranisms in its community. A steadily eroding series of cliffs would be a deep barrel for Puritan tiger beetles, while a dune or forest would hold few, if any.

Maryland Population Review Results