Limiting Factor
A limiting factor is a resource or environmental condition which limits the
growth, distribution or abundance of an organism or population within an
ecosystem.
These can be either physical or biological factors which can be identified
through a response of increased or decreased growth, abundance, or
distribution of a population, when the factor is changed and when the other
factors necessary to life are not
Types of Limiting Factor
i) Density Dependent Factors,
ii) Density Independent Factors
iii) Physical and Biological Limiting Factors (Physical factors or abiotic
factors include temperature, water availability, oxygen, salinity, light,
food and nutrients, biological factors factors, involve interactions
between organisms such as predation, competition, parasitism etc.)
Law of the Minimum
Proposed by Justus von Liebig in 1840.It says that the success of organism
determined by crucial ingredient that is in short supply. As abundance of one
resource increases another resource may become limiting. Also known as
Liebig’s Law of Minimum this law states “growth is not controlled by the total
amount of resources available, but by the scarcest resource”.
As an example a crop’s yield is restricted by the lack of a single element, in this
case lets suppose the soil is low in nitrogen, adding more phosphorus will not
improve the crops yield. Once the soil has nitrogen added crop yield will
increase until another element becomes the limiting factor. And no further
improvement in yield is possible until more of that element is made available.
A limiting factor is a resource or environmental condition which limits the
growth, distribution or abundance of an organism or population within an
ecosystem.
These can be either physical or biological factors which can be identified
through a response of increased or decreased growth, abundance, or
distribution of a population, when the factor is changed and when the other
factors necessary to life are not
Types of Limiting Factor
i) Density Dependent Factors,
ii) Density Independent Factors
iii) Physical and Biological Limiting Factors (Physical factors or abiotic
factors include temperature, water availability, oxygen, salinity, light,
food and nutrients, biological factors factors, involve interactions
between organisms such as predation, competition, parasitism etc.)
Law of the Minimum
Proposed by Justus von Liebig in 1840.It says that the success of organism
determined by crucial ingredient that is in short supply. As abundance of one
resource increases another resource may become limiting. Also known as
Liebig’s Law of Minimum this law states “growth is not controlled by the total
amount of resources available, but by the scarcest resource”.
As an example a crop’s yield is restricted by the lack of a single element, in this
case lets suppose the soil is low in nitrogen, adding more phosphorus will not
improve the crops yield. Once the soil has nitrogen added crop yield will
increase until another element becomes the limiting factor. And no further
improvement in yield is possible until more of that element is made available.
