Final answer:
Environmental factors limit species distribution and abundance through food supply, space, temperature, light, water, and nutrients, as well as biotic factors like predation, competition, and disease. These can lead to logistic growth patterns as populations approach an environment's carrying capacity.
Step-by-step explanation:
Environmental factors significantly influence the distribution and abundance of species within an ecosystem. Limiting factors such as food supply, water availability, light, space, and nutrients dictate how populations can grow, where they can live, and in what numbers. For example, the amount of sunlight in a habitat can determine the types of plants that grow, which in turn affects the herbivores that can feed on those plants and the predators that hunt those herbivores.
Abiotic factors like temperature, oxygen levels, and soil composition are also crucial. They define the conditions in which organisms can survive and reproduce. Climate determines not only temperature but also the patterns of rainfall and seasons, which are critical for plant growth cycles and the water supply for all species.
Furthermore, biotic factors such as predation, competition, and disease can limit population sizes and species distribution. For instance, a high predation rate may reduce the number of prey; intense competition for limited resources can result in only the most adapted species thriving. Infestations of parasites and outbreaks of disease can also regulate population numbers and species spread.
When confronted with these various limiting factors, organisms exhibit a logistic growth pattern, where the population increases rapidly at first but then slows as it approaches the carrying capacity of the environment. The carrying capacity is the maximum population size that the environment can sustain indefinitely without degradation.
In conclusion, several environmental factors, including those that are biotic and abiotic, act as limiting factors that determine the distribution and abundance of species in ecosystems.