Carrying capacity in environmental geography is defined as:

• A. The average number of people a region can support based on current technology
• B. The maximum population size an environment can sustain indefinitely given resource availability, technology, and consumption
• C. The minimum population required to maintain ecosystem services
• D. The annual rate at which population grows

Answer: (B)

Carrying capacity is the limit to how many people an environment can support over the long term without depleting its resources. The best definition includes resource availability, technology, and consumption patterns, because these factors together determine how many people can be sustained indefinitely. Technology and changes in how resources are used can raise or lower that limit, so it isn’t a fixed number. This differs from simply the current average support with today’s tech, a minimum population for ecosystem services, or the population’s growth rate, none of which capture the sustained, resource-based limit on population size.