Which term refers to environmental conditions that restrict population growth?

The term that refers to environmental conditions that restrict population growth is "limiting factors." Limiting factors can encompass a variety of elements, including the availability of resources such as food, water, and space, as well as environmental conditions like temperature, light, and the presence of predators or diseases. These factors play a crucial role in regulating population sizes, ensuring that they do not exceed the capacity of the environment to support them.

For instance, if a population grows too large, it may deplete essential resources, leading to competition and potential population decline. Limiting factors can be density-dependent, where their impact intensifies as the population density increases, or density-independent, where their effects are not influenced by population size. Understanding these limiting factors is fundamental in ecology, as they help explain the dynamics of population growth and environmental sustainability.