Factors Affecting the Growth and Size of a Population
A population is defined as a number of organisms of the same species
living together such that they influence each other's lives, e.g. they
can reproduce, protect each other, compete with each other for food,
shelter, space, light, water, etc. The population size of organisms
changes over time, it increases with births and immigrants but
decreases with deaths and emigrants.
Below is a diagram that shows a population growth curve. A population
growth curve is a graph that shows the growth of a population of
organisms over a period of time.
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The lag phase of the graph is a time of slow growth. There are many
different reasons for this lag, one is that microorganisms may have to
synthesis the enzymes needed to utilise a new food source. Species
that reproduce sexually may take a while to grow and reach maturity.
The growth phase (exponential phase) is a period of rapid and
unrestricted growth. Conditions are favourable, plenty of food, and
there are no limiting factors. Growth begins to slow down due to the
limiting factors; this is known as environmental resistance. The
population begins to stabilise at the stable phase (carrying capacity)
on the graph, this is the size of population that can be supported.
The population size remains stable because the death rate is equal to
the birth rate. Once the death rate exceeds the birth rate the
population numbers decline, and this is known as the death phase.
There are two types of factors that affect the growth and size of a
population and these are, abiotic and biotic factors. Abiotic factors
are non-living factors t...
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...supply is a very important factor of the size of a
population. Therefore the larger the prey population, the larger the
predator population is going to be. Although predators do not usually
control prey populations, they can affect it greatly if that is one of
there main sources of food. Factors such as food availability and
abiotic factors regulate prey populations. Parasites obtain food at
the expense of their hosts; they weaken the host but rarely kill it.
Some parasites cause disease and sometimes death, these are known as
pathogens, and an example of this is the mosquito.
So in conclusion there are many factors that affect the growth and
size of a population, these are split into two groups, the abiotic
factors and the biotic factors. Both sets of factors affect the growth
and size of a population significantly.
There are many problems that occur when the population of a community gets too big. When there are a lot of people in a community, they rely on crops and farms to make more food to feed all the hungry people. But if there is a bad harvest or a natural disaster that happens and destroys food. Then a lot of the overpopulated community can die of starvation. Another thing that happens with a higher population is there is more crime.
As a result, the community growth intensifies to a point where the income per capita will be so low that its maintenance would turn into untenable; hence the population suffers and contracts, occasioning a new cycle again. Therefore, the theory emphasizes a rigid dependence of population growth upon the food supply.
Predators called prudent predators select prey of the highest quality and will switch prey when other foods become more profitable. Prudent predators show preference for the prey they consume, in order to maximise net energy gain per unit time. An important factor in predation-prey interactions is the rate at which individual predators can capture individual prey items. The response of the predator consumption rate to increases in prey density is called the functional response
One of the primary changes between 1700 and 1750 was the changes in population, in the English colonies, increasing from 250,000 to one million. In the seventeenth century most of the immigrants to English North America came from England. In the eighteenth century they came instead from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Germany (http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects.pdf).
While analyzing the given data about the population projections and job projections, I noticed that the city of Clovis is estimated to grow at a gradual rate . With the population growth with over 60,000 people in the last 35 years , the city has a annual growth rate of 1.2%. I hypothesized that the mid-sized city would be growing way too much and too fast compared to the jobs that are projected to become available. I quickly resented my mistake and scripted the numbers to create an age dependency ratio to see who aren’t productive economically. After applying the formula, I found out that 42.9 % of the people in the total population don’t work and they don’t apply to to the workforce improvement and expansion. With that being said, it makes sense that the population’s growth correlates with the job growth in Clovis. When just over half of the population works , it makes sense not to have as many occupations . It is also obvious that every job has had a consistent growth other than occupations such as mining , agriculture, and even government. This is because the government would only significantly expand if you changed some of the state government’s policies. And as for Mining and Agriculture, times
“An Essay on the Principle of Population” is written by Thomas Malthus where he outlines his theory on population growth. He thought that if population continued to grow, food production wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand and he believed that many people would die due to famine. Either people would have to use more contraception to drop the birth rate, or the death rate would increase due to wars, disease or
According to the US Census Bureau report (2012), urban areas are defined as a densely residential, commercial, and other non-residential areas that account for more than 50,000 people. In the US urban population increased by 12.1 percent between 2000 and 2010. In general, urban population account for 80.7 percent of US total population. Other studies also indicate that urban areas are the engines of the United States of America’s economy, creating big opportunities for the entire population in the country. In fact, America’s top hundred urban areas alone comprise at least 75 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Urban areas connect consumers and suppliers together in a relatively close proximity leading driven innovations,
Malthusian theory also deemed population expansion would have a direct correlation between the environment and its future destruction. The environment is the home not only to humans but also to the wildlife, vegetation, and other living species of the world. “Population will have a very serve, even catastrophic, impact on the natural environment and human welfare (Walker, On Wall Street). Over-populat...
Over the centuries our civilization has tried to come up with an ultimate solution concerning
The ‘Accelerated Growth’ excerpt from Blockman’s and Hoppenbrouwer’s Introduction to Medieval Europe 300-1550 puts forth an underlying assertion that there is casual relationship between popular agricultural innovations, political organisation and cultural & social expansion in the medieval period. The relationship being inferred is that as a result of vast population growth in the period, greater need for forms of social order and authority also grew, and thus, as a result a whole new culture and social order of courtly behaviour, knighthood and a new state of peasantry were born.
Humankind will always have to overcome challenges. Three key challenges that we are currently facing and require immediate action are overpopulation, land use, as well as cultural conflicts. These issues have been prevalent topics in the media in recent years. Unless we start taking the steps to address these concerns, we will continue to see these topics in the media for years to come.
Population growth is the change in population over a period of time. It happens due to a number of factors such as standard of living, cultural factors, and government policies. When the standard of living become better such as the improvement of social conditions ( shelter, sanitation, clean water , health care and etc) death rate and birth rate reduce as more people become inclined to have fewer children. As standard of living increases, there will be more immigrants thus an increase in population. Government policies which encourage people to have lesser or more children also has a significant effect on birth rate too.
Every organism requires a specific environment in order to survive. Bacteria alike, different types of bacteria are able to survive and reproduce in different types of environment. Some factors that affect the growth of bacteria include temperature, presence of certain gases and pH of the medium it is in.
The second phase following the previous stage is a precondition for take-off. Economic growth is starting to take place and it is essential to justify the means within a good definition. The society begins to implement the manufacturing of products while at the same time foreign intervention by advanced societies such as through colonialism is needed to bring about change in one's society .... ... middle of paper ...
There are various systems in handling population rates and its various issues that connect with threatening our environment. The population and environment debate will forever be a back and forth problem because there is possibly no way to completely stop carbon emissions but ease its production. To help the environment, we must incorporate all potential solutions in governing population such as family planning and governmental involvement and practice renewable resources and stop on using nonrenewable resources, as well as ways to tackle overconsumption to support our corrupting environment.