In ecology, common limiting factor resources are environmental conditions that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism or a population of organisms in an ecosystem.[2]:G-11[3] The concept of limiting factors is based on Liebig's Law of the Minimum, which states that growth is controlled not by the total amount of resources available, but by the scarcest resource. In other words, a factor is limiting if a change in the factor produces increased growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism, when other factors necessary to the organisms life do not.