Population Growth is the Result of a Balance Between Biotic Potential and Environmental Resistance
Population growth may be defined as the increase in the number of individuals in a population. In general a population will tend to increase in number when the available resources are greater than that required by the members of the population present at that particular time. As long as resources are available, every population has the tendency to grow exponentially.
Biotic Potential:
The term biotic potential refers to the highest rate of reproduction possible for a population under ideal conditions, (conditions where birth rate reaches its theoretical maximum). In general, the population increase under these conditions is known as exponential growth. A graph of exponential population growth is said to be J-shaped. Exponential growth is common of populations that have recently been introduced into a new environment, or populations that are recovering from some catastrophe such as a flood. Factors which affect biotic potential include: the age at which reproduction begins (age of first reproduction event), the number of offspring produced at each reproduction event (clutch size), the number of offspring that survive to reproductive age (survival rate), and the number of reproduction events that can occur in the lifetime of the organism. Hence the ability of a population to grow in an unrestricted environment is called its biotic potential. Houseflies and roaches are famous for high biotic potential (one male roach and 19 fertile female roaches can reach the mass of an aircraft carrier in a year). Large slow-gestating animals have much slower biotic potentials
Environmental Resistance:
Environmental resistance is a general term that refers to summative effect of all those factors (known as limiting factors) that reduce the rate of growth of a population. In the mid-1800s, Justus von Liebig noted that plants required essential nutrients for proper growth and development. If even one essential nutrient is in reduced supply, the plant would be affected regardless of the other minerals present.
In, The Population Bomb by, Paul R Ehrlich, he explains the problem of population increase, and how there are people everywhere! The feeling of feeling over populated. He talks about how if there are more people then there is more food that needs to be produced then ate. He explains on the rich people becoming wealthier and the poor are going to be even poorer and there is going to be a starvation. Population is doubling every year and how our energy is turning into
Some people believe that immigration in the 1900’s was a good thing, however, they would be wrong. The United States government should have restricted the immigrants around that time. Some reasons are the population, the taking of new jobs and lowering wages, and diseases spreading quickly. These all factored importantly into why they should not have been allowed in.
Environmental Challenges are obstacles that exist in nature that a society must overcome. Geography sometimes provides problems for a civilization to beat or overcome. Most civilizations had environmental problems or obstacles that they had to face. The two main civilizations that had many environmental challenges are The Andes Mountains and the Incas and the islands of Japan and the Japanese.
e.g. food chains/ webs 3. Humans: pollution and insecticides are used which effect the environment. 4. Soil: Variations in soil type lead to certain living things having to live in certain areas 5. Shape of the land and aspect: certain areas of land would not be suitable for all living things because of various obstacles.
Overpopulation is the idea or belief that the population of the earth is growing and cannot grow much more without more food being grown or made. Overpopulation would help control growth by having only one baby born or no children at all. This would help limit the population and allow the world to grow and the population does not get out of hand.
Over the centuries our civilization has tried to come up with an ultimate solution concerning
...ion of the environment due to depletion of resources such as water, land and air. Only 2.5 percent of water in the world (including rivers) is available for human use. For example, if industries directly dispose the industrial wastes into the river, the river will be polluted, thus the amount of fresh water in the world decreases, this leads to water deterioration. Water deterioration contributes the most in the degradation of environment. Finally, it can be concluded that electricity brings negative impact to the environment.
In the video Arithmetic, Population, and Energy by Dr. Albert A. Bartlett, he discusses in length the problems with the growing population and additional problems that it causes. He believes that the biggest contributing factor to our problems is that we don’t or can’t understand the exponential function (or steady growth). Through multiple examples he proves that the population is growing according to the exponential function. He then goes on to provide examples of how much energy and resources the population uses and applies that to his growth rate of the population. On the surface his conclusions seem to be that we must all do our homework and not take others’ word for what’s happening to the resources on earth. Through his examples, it
There are several ways to predict how a population grows and/or shrinks over time (Daempfle, 2016). Some organisms are tagged to measure their arrangement in a particular population. Human population is measured by a census. Population demographics teaches us about population size, density, and age. The information collected assists scientists in predicting how populations will change over time.
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.
The human population growth rate is an alarming issue that brings with it irreversible consequences, that will likely effect the way of life for future generations to come. With the serious incline in population statistics comes catastrophic processes such as global warming and deforestation that have major ‘knock on’ ramifications. It’s issues such as these that need to be considered when we think about the growth of the human population, and we must take into account why these issues are occurring. We must also explore the options available to us that may assist in limiting the problems, or eliminating them all together, to provide a better place, not only for us in existence now, but also those who will walk this earth in the future decades and centuries to come.
Human population growth is becoming a huge issue in our world today. The population is increasing rapidly. The reason that it is becoming a concern is because it has affected the economic, environmental, and social aspects of our world. In the film Frontline: Heat, we can see how there might not be a future for our planet unless we are able to reduce the emissions and make our world a safe place. Not only for the present but also for future generations so that they are able to live long and healthy lives.
Overpopulation is a growing problem all over the world. This is a very important environmental issue and needs to be dealt with. This environmental problem is affecting many countries in the world, but mostly the poor and impoverished countries that don’t have the resources to help deal with these issues. It also affects the environment like plants animal life and air quality. When the population of people expands we need more natural resources from the environment, so we consume more then we can produce. This leads to the lack of resources in many areas. When expanding we create a lot of pollution in the air, water, and land. The pollution affects many humans health. Overpopulation is doing more harm than any other environmental issue. Overpopulation also causes many of the other issues we are dealing with. This is very dangerous to not only us humans but the planet. Even though many wealthy countries are not affected by this overpopulation, I feel like they should help the cause. There is always two sides to an issue like this. Some people don’t think that overpopulation is a big problem and the ones who say it is an issue that needs to be dealt with.
The unwanted changes or variations in the physical, biological or chemical properties of the soil, which have an adverse effect on the organisms or plants is called soil pollution. It greatly harms the natural quality and utility of the soil.
As human beings we have a responsibility to protect ourselves, each other and our environment. The term environment refers to a complex set of social/cultural conditions that affect an individual or community. However, there are events and processes that occur in the environment that human beings have no control over. Environmental science, the systematic study of processes and materials in our environment, identifies temperature, precipitation and humidity as a few natural conditions. Natural conditions force us to be reactive, while things that we can control, such as consumption and waste, allow us to be proactive.