M2 Lesson 1 Human Population Change The Environment

People and the Earth’s Ecosystems
Lesson 1
Human Population Change the Environment
Learning Outcomes:
● Define population ecology.
● Explain the four factors that produce changes in population size.
● Summarize the history of human population growth.
● Define demographics and describe the demographic transition.
● Explain how highly developed and developing countries differ in population
characteristics such as infant mortality rate, total fertility rate, replacement-
level fertility, and age structure.
● Define urbanization and describe trends in the distribution of people in rural
and urban areas.
● Describe some of the problems associated with rapid growth rates in large
urban areas.
● Describe sustainable development and its complexities associated with the
concept of sustainable consumption.
Time Frame: 1st week
Introduction
This lesson talks about the effects of exponentially growing human

population in the environment.
Activity:
Answer the following questions:
1. What is population ecology?
2. How do each of the following affect population size: birth rate, death rate,
immigration, and emigration?
3. How do biotic potential and/or carrying capacity produce the J-shaped and
S-shaped population growth curves?
4. How would you describe human population growth for the past 200 years?
5. Who was Thomas Malthus, and what were his views on human population
growth?
6. When determining Earth’s carrying capacity for humans, why is it not enough
to just consider human numbers?
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Abstraction
How Do Populations Change in Size?
• individuals of a given species are part of a larger organization called a

population.
• Population ecology- Branch of biology that deals with the number of
individuals of a particular species found in an area and why those
numbers increase or decrease over time.
(left) A population of blue columbines in Yankee Boy Basin, Colorado.

Populations of other flowers are in the background; (right) A herd of impala
survey their surroundings.
Photographed in Tanzania.
• growth rate (r)

• The rate of change (increase or decrease) of a population’s size,
expressed in percentage per year.
• birth rate (b) minus the death rate (d)
• r=b–d
• also referred to as natural increase in human populations
• Dispersal- movement from one region or country to another
2 types of dispersal:
• immigration (i)- individuals enter a population and increase its
size
• emigration (e)- individuals leave a population and decrease its
size
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• growth rate (r) of a local population must take into account birth rate
(b), death rate (d), immigration (i), and emigration (e)
• r = (b – d) + (i – e)
Maximum Population Growth
• biotic potential- The maximum rate at which a population could

increase under ideal conditions.
• Factors that influence the biotic potential of a species:
• the age at which reproduction begins
• the fraction of the life span during which an individual can
reproduce
• the number of reproductive periods per lifetime
• the number of ofspring produced during each period of
reproduction.
• life history characteristics determine whether a particular species has a
large or a small biotic potential.
• Generally, larger organisms, such as blue whales and elephants, have
the smallest biotic potentials, whereas micro organisms have the
greatest biotic potentials
Factors that interact to change population size
Exponential population growth

The accelerating population growth that occurs when optimal conditions allow
a constant reproductive rate.
Environmental Resistance and Carrying Capacity

• organisms don’t reproduce indefinitely at their biotic potential because
the environment sets limits, which are collectively called
environmental resistance. Examples: limited food, water, shelter, and
other essential resources, as well as increased disease and predation
• The environment controls population size: As the population increases,
so does environmental resistance, which limits population growth.
• carrying capacity ( K )- The largest population a particular
environment can support sustainably (long term), if there are no
changes in that environment.
• population rarely stabilizes at K (carrying capacity) but its size may
temporarily rise higher than K. It will then drop back to, or below, the
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carrying capacity. Sometimes a population that overshoots K will

experience a population crash, an abrupt decline from high to low
population density when resources are exhausted.
• When a population influenced by environmental resistance is graphed
over a long period, the curve has an S shape (see next figure)
• The curve shows the population’s initial exponential increase (note the
curve’s J shape at the start, when environmental resistance is low).
Then the population size levels out as it approaches the carrying
capacity of the environment
Human Population Patterns
Thomas Malthus (1766–1834)
• a British economist
• One of the first people to recognize that the human population can’t
increase indefinitely was
• pointed out that human population growth is not always
• Noted that human population can increase faster than its food supply,
he warned that the inevitable consequences of population growth
would be famine, disease, and war.
Projecting Future Population Numbers

• zero population growth- The state in which the population remains
the same size because the birth rate equals the death rate.
• estimates vary depending on fertility changes
• Small differences in fertility, then, produce large differences in
population forecasts
Demographics of Countries
• Demographics- The applied branch of sociology that deals with
population statistics.
• infant mortality rate- The number of deaths of infants under age 1 per
1000 live births.
• Per person GNI PPP- a country’s gross national income (GNI) in
purchasing power parity (PPP) divided by its population. It indicates the
amount of goods and services an average citizen of that particular
country could buy in the United States
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Highly developed moderately developed Less developed

countries countries countries
have the lowest -have birth rates and have the shortest life
birth rates in the infant mortality rates expectancies, the
world, low infant higher than those of lowest average per
mortality rates and highly developed person GNI PPPs, the
have longer life countries, but they are highest birth rates, and
expectancies declining the highest infant
-medium level of mortality rates
industrialization, and
their average per person
GNI PPPs are lower vs
highly developed
countries
• replacement-level fertility- The number of children a couple must

produce to “replace” themselves.
• total fertility rate (TFR)- The average number of children born to each
woman.
The Demographic Transition- process whereby a country moves from
relatively high birth and death rates to relatively low birth and deathrates.
Age Structure of Countries

• Age Structure- The number and proportion of people at each age in a
population
• age structure diagram- presents the number of males and the number
of females at each age, from birth to death
• The age structure diagram of a country with a high growth rate, based
on a high fertility rate (Ethiopia or Guatemala)—is shaped like a
pyramid
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Declining fertility rates have profound social and economic implications

because as fertility rates drop, the percentage of the population that is elderly
increases.
Population and Urbanization

• Urbanization- A process whereby people move from rural areas to
densely populated cities.
The city as a dynamic ecosystem
Environmental Problems of Urban Areas
• Suburban sprawl that encroaches into former forest, wetland, desert, or

agricultural land destroys or fragments wildlife habitat.
• brownfields—areas of abandoned, vacant factories, warehouses, and
residential sites that may be contaminated from past uses
• Air pollution: airborne emissions, including particulate matter (dust),
sulfur oxides, carbon oxides, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic
compounds (from automobiles)
• water flow is affected because they cover the rainfall absorbing soil
with buildings and paved roads
• Contaminated runoff
Environmental Benefits of Urbanization

• well-planned city actually benefits the environment by reducing
pollution and preserving rural areas.
• Compact development- Design of cities in which tall, multiple-unit
residential buildings are close to shopping and jobs, and all are
connected by public transportation.
• Urbanization is a worldwide phenomenon.
• more than 50% of the world population lives in urban areas with
populations of 2000 or greater
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Challenges faced by developing countries

• substandard housing (slums and squatter settlements); poverty;
exceptionally high unemployment; heavy pollution; and inadequate or
non-existent water, sewage, and waste disposal (left figure).
• Rapid urban growth also strains school, medical, and transportation
systems.
Application
What is happening in this picture?
The photo shows people—mainly displaced/marginalized rural

workers—picking through trash at the Smoky Mountain in Payatas landfill in the
Manila. They are looking mainly for scraps of plastics and metals that they can
sell.
What valuable environmental service does such scavenging provide?
Do you think this is the result of urbanization and environmental conversion?
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Closure
The next lesson is about the people and agriculture.
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People and the Earth’s Ecosystems

Time Frame: 1st week

This lesson talks about the effects of exponentially growing human

Answer the following questions:

1. What is population ecology?

• individuals of a given species are part of a larger organization called a

(left) A population of blue columbines in Yankee Boy Basin, Colorado.

• growth rate (r)

• Dispersal- movement from one region or country to another

Maximum Population Growth

• biotic potential- The maximum rate at which a population could

Factors that interact to change population size

Exponential population growth

Environmental Resistance and Carrying Capacity

carrying capacity. Sometimes a population that overshoots K will

Projecting Future Population Numbers

Highly developed moderately developed Less developed

• replacement-level fertility- The number of children a couple must

Age Structure of Countries

Declining fertility rates have profound social and economic implications

Population and Urbanization

The city as a dynamic ecosystem

Environmental Problems of Urban Areas

• Suburban sprawl that encroaches into former forest, wetland, desert, or

Environmental Benefits of Urbanization

Challenges faced by developing countries

The photo shows people—mainly displaced/marginalized rural

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