Question

Ecological factors, which prevents a species from producing at its maximum rate is termed as
(a)Survival curve
(b)Ecological Drift
(c)Environmental resistance
(d)None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Ecological factors can be biotic or abiotic and influence the lives of the planet earth. Some factors are really necessary to maintain ecological stability among different communities by controlling the rate of reproduction of each and every species.

Complete answer:
Environmental resistance is an ecological factor that helps a community or population of a species to stay essentially unchanged by preventing its production at the maximum rate. This is the main reason for ecological stability against environmental stress or disturbances. It is, according to studies, a component of resilience, and its inverse is sensitivity which allows species to show larger changes due to disturbances. The resistance inside the communities prevents the condition for the outgrowth of one species and the destruction of others as a result of that. There are several factors that are related to resistance and these are both biotic and abiotic. Biotic factors are mainly competition, predation, or parasitism and abiotic ones are temperatures, drought, etc.

Additional Information: The curve depicts the number of individuals that are surviving to each age of a given species and can be constructed for a given cohort i.e. a group of organisms of the same age. The number of surviving organisms is placed on the y-axis whereas their age is plotted on x. They can be convex, concave, or diagonal based on the survival rate and mortality rate.
Ecological drift is the factor that causes random fluctuation in the abundance of species which lowers diversity within communities and increases the difference between them.
Therefore, the correct answer is “environmental resistance”.

Note: The Environmental resistance restricts the full potential of an organism to maintain the population of the organism which in turn keeps the ecosystem stable. Without this resistance, an organism will reproduce at a maximum rate which will be a threat to other organisms to survive. For example, if in an ecosystem, the snakes reproduce at maximum potential, the population of snakes will increase so much that food scarcity will appear. They will feed on all the frogs in that area that for the particular condition, all frog species will disappear. Therefore, to keep the ecosystem stable, resistance is very necessary.