What does carrying capacity indicate?

Carrying capacity refers to the maximum population size of a species that an environment can sustainably support given available resources such as food, habitat, water, and other necessities. This concept is critical in ecology as it helps understand population dynamics and the balance between organisms and their environment. When a population exceeds its carrying capacity, it can lead to resource depletion and can ultimately result in a decline in that population due to starvation, disease, or emigration.

In contrast, the other options focus on different ecological concepts that do not specifically address the population limitations imposed by environmental factors. For instance, evolution pertains to the process through which species change over time, while the minimum viable population refers to the smallest population size that can survive. The total number of species in an ecosystem relates to biodiversity, which is not directly tied to the idea of carrying capacity. Therefore, the correct answer highlights the fundamental relationship between population size and resource availability in an ecosystem.