Question

Why is carrying capacity important in maintaining a balance ecosystem?

Answer 1

Carrying capacity is the maximum amount of organisms that an ecosystem can support. So to ensure that an ecosystem stays balanced the population needs to be under the carrying capacity. If it is not, then organisms will begin to die until the ecosystem is balanced again. The carrying capacity is related to limiting factors as such food, space, water, and sunlight. There are limited amounts of all of these, and they can only support so many plants and animals.

Answer 2

For there to be a balance ecosystem, there must be a balance between a population in which it should not exceed the carrying capacity, leading to the destruction of the tier of food below them, neither should there be too later, leading to the destruction of the food tier above them. When the population is able to not only maintain but also adapt to the changing carrying capacity, then the population would continue to live on.

What happens if they fail to stay within the carrying capacity? Think of it in two ways:

1) The fall short of the minimum carrying capacity. Assuming they are the only carnivores, then the amount of herbivores and omnivores per population would explode, leading to overgrazing and the destruction of the ecosystem from the bottom up.

2) If the carnivores exceed the maximum carrying capacity, there may be a high chance of wiping out a certain species or overhunting them, resulting in a collapse both on the top from starvation, but also at the base from excessive population growth due to having no second tier.

Meeting the requirement for carrying capacity while not exceeding it is necessary to allow for each tier within the ecosystem to stay in the level that they should, in that they are well fed and maintaining the normal growth levels, while not overpopulating and destroying the ecosystem from the inside out.

Step-by-step explanation: