CARRYING CAPACITY
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 354 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
1. “… The population level for long-range survival” (H. ODUM. 1983, p.125).
2. “The maximum number of living things that can be supported indefinitely by a given ecosystem or area without deterioration” (Template:Ency entity-Template:Ency entity Glossary, 1983, p.7).
These definitions are proper to ecology and related to basic physical resources (mineral cycles, soil, water levels, plants, etc.) However there are also limits to the carrying capacity of transmission channels of any kind.
An eventual larger carrying capacity must be “based on the continued flow of the concentrated potential energy” (Ibid., p. 123).
The carrying capacity of any biotope or ecosystem remains stable only when the environmental conditions remain within stable limits. This does not exclude some more or less periodic maxima or minima, for example during winter, or dry season. Very long term constraints are more elusive and, as a results, long range carrying capacity is quite difficult to evaluate with reasonable certainty.
Still another definition is the following: In any subsystem - but particularly in a niche in an ecosystem , the ultimate limit to the number of elements or individuals able to survive in the niche.
The ultimate limit is generally characterized by heavy overcrowding , which leads to blockage (for instance in vehicles traffic on truncal roads), massive destruction (by epidemics , for example), massive emigration (as the one caused by overpopulation and the potato blight famine in the 1840's in Ireland) or gregarious mutation and behavioral change (as in Dictyostelium discoideum or in solitary locusts reaching a critical density)