Final answer:
Option C is correct: Limiting factors are environmental conditions that restrict the size or range of a species. They lead to logistic growth in populations and include factors such as nutrient availability, space, and predation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Limiting factors can be defined as environmental conditions that restrict the size or range of a species. This is option C, which correctly encapsulates the concept. Limiting factors are resources or conditions in the environment that can lower the population growth rate. Examples of these include a low food supply and lack of space. Other limiting factors consist of light availability, water, nutrients or minerals, oxygen, the capacity of an ecosystem to recycle nutrients and waste, disease and parasitism, temperature, available living space, and predation. When these factors exceed the carrying capacity of the environment, populations show a logistic growth pattern, often referred to as an S-curve, stabilizing as resources become scarce.
Nutrients like nitrogen often serve as a limiting factor in plant growth within terrestrial ecosystems, thereby also affecting the primary production of those ecosystems. Both biotic factors, like competition among species, and abiotic factors, such as climate and weather patterns, play a crucial role in limiting population sizes.