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Liebig's law states that growth only occurs at the rate permitted by the most limiting factor. [ 2 ] For instance, in the equation below, the growth of population O {\displaystyle O} is a function of the minimum of three Michaelis-Menten terms representing limitation by factors I {\displaystyle I} , N {\displaystyle N} and P {\displaystyle P} .
Density-dependent mortality can be overcompensating, undercompensating or exactly compensating. [citation needed] There also exists density-independent inhibition, where other factors such as weather or environmental conditions and disturbances may affect a population's carrying capacity. [citation needed]
The identification of a factor as limiting is possible only in distinction to one or more other factors that are non-limiting. Disciplines differ in their use of the term as to whether they allow the simultaneous existence of more than one limiting factor (which may then be called "co-limiting"), but they all require the existence of at least one non-limiting factor when the terms are used.
When resources are limited, an increase in population size reduces the quantity of resources available for each individual, reducing the per capita fitness in the population. As a result, the growth rate of a population slows as intraspecific competition becomes more intense, making it a negatively density dependent process.
Threshold host density (N T) only applies to density dependent diseases, where there is an "aggregation of risk" to the host in either high host density or low host density patches. When low host density causes an increase in incidence of parasitism or disease, this is known as inverse host density dependence, whereas when incidence of ...
The causes of delayed density dependence vary in each situation. In lemmings, food supply and predation are the most important factors that lead to delayed density dependence. [3] Competition between life stages is another cause. In some species of moth the practice of egg cannibalism takes place where older moths eat eggs of their own species. [6]
[2] [3] Subsequent work has derived the model under other assumptions such as scramble competition, [4] within-year resource limited competition [5] or even as the outcome of source-sink Malthusian patches linked by density-dependent dispersal. [6] [7] The Ricker model is a limiting case of the Hassell model [5] which takes the form
Moisture is a significant limiting factor in terrestrial ecosystems and majorly in the soil. [3] Soil organisms are constantly confronted with the problem of dehydration. [4] Soil microbial communities experience shifts in the diversity and composition during dehydration and rehydration cycles. [5]