Carrying Capacity

Real World Example

Imagine hosting a dinner party with limited seating and food. Just as you can only invite as many guests as your table and meal can accommodate without running out or making everyone uncomfortable, an environment can only support a population up to a certain limit before resources become too scarce. The connection is that both the dinner party and an ecosystem have a "carrying capacity" — for the party, it's the number of guests your table and food can handle, and for the environment, it's the largest population that can be sustained by its resources.