What do you think these major advances were?- Name some environmental crises that support the idea that our human population has
already grown beyond the carrying capacity resulting in environmental degradation.
Further Reading / Supplemental Links
- http://www.brainpop.com/science/ourfragileenvironment/populationgrowth/preview.
weml - http://eelink.net/pages/EE+Activities+-+Population
- http://mathforum.org/t2t/faq/census.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_ecology
Vocabulary
altricial Newborn that are helpless at birth and require much parental care.
birth rate Number of births per individual within the population per unit time.
carrying capacity Maximum population size that can be supported in a particular area
without degradation of the habitat.
death rate Number of deaths per individual within the population per unit time.
density-dependent factors Promote competition between members of the same popula-
tion for the same resource; food and space are examples.
density-independent factors Act irregularly, regardless of how dense the population is;
temperature and climate are examples.
dispersion Spacing of individuals within a population.
emigration Movement of individuals out of a population.
immigration Movement of individuals into a population from other areas.
limiting factor A living or nonliving property of a population’s environment, which reg-
ulates population growth.
population growth rate How the population size changes per population member per
unit of time.
precocial Newborn that are independent at birth or hatching and require little parental
care.