Ecosystem Analysis and Resilience — Important Questions

Break down organic matter and return nutrients to the environment

Decomposers break down dead organic matter and release nutrients back into the environment for reuse.

Temperature

Limiting factors may be physical, such as temperature, light, water, and nutrients, or biological, such as disease and predation.

Competition

Biological limiting factors include competition, disease, predation, and parasitism.

The range between the maximum and minimum limits within which an organism can survive, grow, and reproduce

The zone of tolerance is the full survivable range for an environmental factor, also called the zone of compatibility.