Carrying Capacity and Limiting Factors Reading Passage

What do limiting factors do?

• Separate biotic factors from abiotic factors.
• Determine which is the predator and which is the prey.
• Regulate how many organisms live in an ecosystem.
• Determine which natural disasters will hit an area.

Which of the following are abiotic limiting factors?

• The decomposers in an ecosystem.
• The populations of producers in a given habitat.
• Carrying capacities of several species
• Water, space, and oxygen.

Which of the following is a biotic limiting factor?

• The amount of breathable oxygen available to a population.
• Food available for organisms
• The nitrogen to oxygen ratio in the air supply
• The number of bodies of water in a habitat.

In biology, what is carrying capacity?

• The maximum population size an ecosystem can support
• A total list of the limiting factors
• How much weight an organism can lift
• How much pain an organism can tolerate

Besides factors such as water, space, food, and oxygen, carrying capacity is affected by how many____________________ there are

• decomposers
• aliens
• trees

What do decomposers do?

• Feed on carnivores exclusively.
• Break down and recycle dead organisms and organic matter.
• Prevent living organisms from taking up space in an ecosystem.
• Feed on producers exclusively

What happens to the population of a species after it reaches its carrying capacity?

• Increases linearly over time.
• Increases exponentially over time.
• Decreases to zero in a very short amount of time
• Remains relatively the same

What can destroy the amount of resources in an ecosystem?

• Natural disasters
• Tornados only
• Hurricanes only.
• Tsunamis only.

If a natural disaster devastates an ecosystem, what will this do to the carrying capacity of the population of a species within that ecosystem?

• Increase it.
• Will not affect it, so it will stay the same
• Always reduce it down to zero.
• Decrease it.

By which activity can humans change the carrying capacity of the population of a species?

• Studying the niches of particular species
• Compiling a list of habitats in an ecosystem.
• Manipulating resources in its natural environment.
• Convincing it to reduce its carbon footprint.