Limiting Factors

Definition: are the conditions within an biome that determine how big it will actually become overtime. These factors stop all different types of biomes from growing exponentially. 

Types of Limiting Factors
1) Density-Independent Factor / Abiotic: ones that affect the population size and growth despite how big the population is. 
2) Density-Dependent Factors / Biotic: affected by the size of a population which usually involves living things.

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Biotic Limiting Factors

1) Allelopathy

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Definition: ability for a plant to affect the pH of the soil and the nutrient makeup with in the soil. Special types of plants uses this system in order to gain an advantage when competing with other plants in order to receive more nutrients from the soil.     

Example: Eastern Black Walnut Tree which is a native tree in eastern north american that does this in the temperate deciduous forest.

2) Pests

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Definition: non-native species are very detrimental when placed into the temperate deciduous forest because old growth forests are very susceptible to different types of pests. Due to the forest being old growth, it has a hard time adjusting to small changes within its environment. When these pests are present they cause extreme damage. 

Example: The Asian Gypsy Moth invaded the United States in 1991 but is slowly being eradicated by different environmentalist in the United States. The reason why this organism is so detrimental is that in large numbers it can completely remove the leaves of the trees which completely throws of the growing season. This will eventually lead to the death of the tree due to it not being able to survive during the cold months.

3) Disease

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Definition: a disease can be anything from a bacteria to a virus that spreads through an ecosystem. The harmful part of a disease it that it can be viral so if one organism has it, it spreads to other organisms very easily by close contact or the exchange fluids.

Example: The Chestnut Blight disease; it single handedly killed of the entire adult chestnut population in the deciduous forest. The virus spreads so easily which made other trees become infected.

Abiotic Limiting Factors

1) Sunlight

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Why Sunlight is Needed?: basic necessity in order for different types of plants to survive, temperate deciduous forest are known for their tall trees which makes it difficult for low lying shrubs to receive sunlight. As a result, little sunlight actually reaches the bottom floor of these forest which makes these shrubs and ferns not even grow that much. These plants have to adapt to shady conditions in order to survive. Sunlight is an extreme limiting factor for them

2) Human Cultivation

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Effect of Human Cultivation: human civilization has been building on temperate forest for years which has led to the destruction of habitat. The excess amounts of pollution and the building of factories has led to the extinction of several animal species becoming extinct such as the giant beaver. 

Example: the falling of acid rain when coal power plants release their fumes into the air. These power plants release sulfites, nitrites, and carbon into the air which when mixed with the atmosphere creates Sulfuric acid, Nitric acid, Nitrous acid, and carbonic acid. Plants suffer heavily from this process because they open their stomata when it rains to receive water but all they get in the end is damaged leaves.

3) Water

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Why Water is Needed?: essential compound in order for different plants to function especially in the deciduous forest. After the chaparral biome, the temperate deciduous forest has one of the most fertile types of soil. Rainfall is essential for this biome to function and constant rainfall helps to keeps the soil moist without being completely wet. This is why water is a limiting factor for this biome because without it, the different shrubs honestly can’t functions that well.