Final answer:
Limiting factors in ecology are the resources or environmental conditions that restrict the growth of populations, such as food supply and habitat availability. They lead to logistic growth and define the population's carrying capacity.
Step-by-step explanation:
Limiting factors are essential elements in the study of ecology that define the conditions under which populations can grow. Factors such as food supply, habitat space, water, and others have a significant impact on both animal and plant populations. When these resources are limited, populations experience logistic growth - depicted as an S-curve - which shows a leveling off as resources become scarcer, this level is referred to as the carrying capacity (K). Human activities such as the use of pesticides and habitat destruction also play a substantial role in limiting population growth.
Two types of limiting factors affecting populations are density-dependent and density-independent factors. Density-dependent factors, like food availability, have different impacts depending on the population size. Conversely, density-independent factors, such as weather or chemicals like pesticides, impact the population equally, regardless of its size.