Resource (biology)

In biology and ecology, a resource is a substance or object in the environment required by an organism for normal growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Resources can be consumed by one organism and, as a result, become unavailable to another organism.^[1][2][3] For plants key resources are light, nutrients, water, and space to grow. For animals key resources are food, water, and territory.

Key resources for plants

Terrestrial plants require particular resources for photosynthesis and to complete their life cycle of germination, growth, reproduction, and dispersal:^[4][5]

• Carbon dioxide
• Microsite (ecology)
• Nutrients
• Pollination
• Seed dispersal
• Soil
• Water

Key resources for animals

Animals require particular resources for metabolism and to complete their life cycle of gestation, birth, growth, and reproduction:^[6]

• Foraging
• Territory
• Water

Resources and ecological processes

Resource availability plays a central role in ecological processes:

• Carrying capacity
• Biological competition
• Liebig's law of the minimum
• Niche differentiation

See also

• Abiotic component
• Biotic component
• Community ecology
• Ecology
• Population ecology
• Plant ecology
• size-asymmetric competition