most carnivorous plants live in habitats with high light, waterlogged soils, and extremely low soil nitrogen and phosphorus, producing the ecological impetus to derive nitrogen from an alternate source. high light environments allowed for the trade off between photosynthetic leaves and prey capturing traps that are photosynthetically inefficient. to compensate for photosynthetically inefficient material, the nutrients obtained through carnivory would need to increase photosynthesis by investing in more leaf mass, i.e. growing. this means when there is a shortage of nutrients and enough light and water, prey capture and digestion has the greatest impact on photosynthetic gains, favoring the evolution of plant adaptations which allowed for more effective and efficient carnivory. due to the large amount of energy and resources allocated to carnivorous adaptations. i.e. the production of lures, digestive enzymes, modified leaf structures, and the decreased rate of photosynthesis over total leaf area, some authors argue that carnivory is an evolutionary last resort when nitrogen and phosphorus are limited in an ecosystem.