When organisms face limiting factors-such as limited food, space, water, or other essential resources-they exhibit logistic growth rather than exponential growth. Logistic growth is characterized by a population increase that slows as it approaches the carrying capacity of the environment, which is the maximum population size that the environment can sustain without degradation

. Limiting factors restrict the availability of resources necessary for survival and reproduction, causing the growth rate to decrease as resources become scarce. This results in an S-shaped growth curve where population growth initially is rapid but then slows and stabilizes as it nears the carrying capacity due to these constraints

. In summary:

• Without limiting factors: populations grow exponentially.
• With limiting factors: populations show logistic growth, slowing as they approach carrying capacity.

This logistic growth pattern is a direct consequence of environmental limits imposed by factors like food, space, water, and other abiotic and biotic factors