Question

How do the availability of water and light and the climate affect the growth of a population?

Answer 1

The availability of water and light and the climate are abiotic factors that limit the growth of a population. Since the producers are the responsible for the synthesis of organic material transfered along the food chains of an ecosystem, water and light affect the availability of food and a population cannot grow beyond the number of individuals the environment is able to feed. For example, in the desert, the biomass is relatively small and populations that live in this ecosystem are smaller (comparing to same species in environments with large available biomass). The climate, including the temperature, affects the population growth because excessive change in this factor, as the occurrence of droughts or floods, may cause significant population decline; small climatic changes can also alter the photosynthesis rate and reduce the availability of food in the ecosystem.