The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water, and other necessities available in the environment. Why is a population that overshoots the carrying capacity can only do so for a limited amount of time?

A population that overshoots the carrying capacity can only do so for a limited amount of time because: since the ecosystem already has the maximum number it can take for a given specie, overshooting the ecosystem will not last long as:

1. Competitions for the limited available space and resources will result to increase death rate and emigration from the environment.

2. Birth rate would be controlled as the rate resources are used is greater than they are replenished. This limits productivity among species.

Step-by-step explanation:

The carrying capacity of an environment, in simple terms is the amount of a given specie that the environment can sustain without depleting or degrading the available resources. Population size of an environment increases if birth rate increases and death rate decreases, and if the environment also experience an increase in species coming to live there than they are leaving the environment. In other words, when resources are limited it affects the population size of an environment.