"our Global Environment" Chapter 2

Front 1

What are some measurable group attributes that are unique to a population? How is knowing these characteristics helpful?

Back 1

Birth & death rates, age structure, population density, and spatial distribution.

Hint 1

Knowing these characteristics for any given population is helpful in predicting how that population will change in response to changes in the environment.
(pg 39)

Front 2

How do we assess dynamic changes within a population?

Back 2

By keeping track of additions to that population from births and immigration and of losses from the same group due to deaths and emigration.

Hint 2

(pg 39)

Front 3

What is biotic potential?

Back 3

The maximum growth rate that a population could achieve in an unlimited environment.

Hint 3

(pg 40)

Front 4

What is environmental resistance? How is it measured?

Back 4

The environmental pressures that limit a population's inherent capacity for growth.

Hint 4

It's generally measured as the difference between the biotic potential of a population and the actual rate of increase.
(pg 40)

Front 5

How might AIDS be an example of environmental resistance?

Back 5

It could be argued that it acts to bring a halt to what seems to be a runaway rate of population increase in Africa. -->

Hint 5

If women of childbearing age sicken and die while still relatively young, total fertility rates will be lower. Similarly, if child mortality rises, overall growth rates would be affected.
(pgs 46-47)

Front 6

What are population growth forms and what are the two basic patterns of them?

Back 6

Characteristic patterns of increase that all populations exhibit.

Hint 6

The S-curve and the J-curve.
(pg 40)

Front 7

What is carrying capacity?

Back 7

The limit at which that environment can support a population.

Hint 7

(pg 42)

Front 8

Discuss the upper-asymptote of the S-curve. What is it? What does it indicate? What does it represent?
What else is it called?

Back 8

-The upper-asymptote is the upper limit of an S-curve.
-Indicates the point at which increased mortality has brought birth and death rates into balance.
-Represents an equilibrium level between the biotic potential of that population and the environmental resistance.

Hint 8

It's also called the carrying capacity of that environment.
(pgs 40-42)

Front 9

What kind of populations are S-curves typical of?

Back 9

They are typical of diverse populations such as microorganisms, plants, and many types of birds & mammals.

Hint 9

(pg 42)

Front 10

What causes S-curves?

Back 10

They result from the gradually increasing pressures of environmental resistance as the population density increases.

Hint 10

(pg 42)

Front 11

Discuss the J-curve. What is it?

Back 11

Population growth increases at rapid exponential rates up to or even beyond the carrying capacity of the environment.

Hint 11

(pg 42)

Front 12

What causes a J-curve? What results from it?

Back 12

Environmental resistance becomes effective only at the last moment.

Hint 12

As a result, the populations that have overshot the carrying capacity suffer severe diebacks.
(pg 42)

Front 13

What populations do you see the J-curve in?

Back 13

Many natural populations, such as lemmings, algal blooms, and certain insects.

Hint 13

(pg 42)

Front 14

What are some similarities between the S- & J-curves?

Back 14

The early phases of growth are identical: a preliminary "lag" phase, followed by a logarithmic, or exponential, growth phase during which not only do the actual numbers grow rapidly, but the rate of increase also increases. The J-curve is like an incomplete S-curve because the sudden imposition of limiting effects halts growth.

Hint 14

(pg 42)

Front 15

What are some factors that can cause populations to decline?

Back 15

-Food storage
-Excess predation
-Disease
-Homeostatic controls

Hint 15

(pg 42)

Front 16

What are homeostatic controls?

Back 16

Self-regulating factors-in the form of behavioral, physiological, and social responses-within a population that can cause a decline in population.

Hint 16

(pg 42)

Front 17

What has posed the biggest threat to the earth: geological events, biological events, or human overpopulation?

Back 17

Human overpopulation.

Hint 17

Note that some predict we have little hope of significantly reducing other types of environmental degradation if present rates of population increase are not reversed.
(pg 44)

Front 18

Describe the "dismal theorem" and who came up with it?

Back 18

Thomas Malthus demonstrated the populations grow geometrically (2, 4, 8, 16, 32) while agricultural production increases only arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), so the population will always tend to outpace additions to the food supply.

Hint 18

(pg 44)

Front 19

What is doubling time?

Back 19

The time required for a population to double in size.

Hint 19

(pg 45)

Front 20

When were the three main surges of increase in human population?

Back 20

-600,000 years ago with the evolution of culture.
-8000 BC with the agricultural revolution.
-200 years ago with the onset of the industrial-medical-scientific revolution.

Hint 20

Note that the world population has been increasing steadily for the past million years, as well as the rate of growth increasing.
(pg 45)

Front 21

How are birth rates determined? What do they show?

Back 21

The number of births per 1000 people per year.

Hint 21

A nation's birth rate can be looked at as a crude barometer of its level of economic development.
(pg 45)

Front 22

The most prosperous, most technologically advanced countries generally have high or low birth rates?

Back 22

Low.

Hint 22

(pg 45)

Front 23

How are death rates determined?

Back 23

The number of deaths per 1000 people per year.

Hint 23

(pg 47)

Front 24

Why are birth & death rates often referred to as "crude" rates?

Back 24

They don't reflect the wide variations in age distribution within a population.

Hint 24

(pg 47)

Front 25

What do total fertility rates (TFR) represent? Is it more or less clear than looking at crude birth rates?

Back 25

The average number of children each woman within a given population is likely to bear during her reproductive lifetime.

Hint 25

They are possibly more clear than birth rates.
(pg 47)

Front 26

What is the growth rate and how is it calculated?

Back 26

The growth rate is a change in population size, and is represented by the difference between additions to the population (birth rate) and subtractions from the population (death rate).

Hint 26

Note it is also called the "rate of natural increase."
(pg 48)

Front 27

How is the growth rate expressed? What is it relationship to birth rate?

Back 27

Growth rate is expressed as a percentage (i.e. per 100).

Hint 27

A country can have a high birth rate but a low growth rate if the death rate is also high.
(pg 48)

Front 28

Discuss how changing death rates are related to increasing growth rates?

Back 28

Birth rates have held steady during most of human history, so changing death rates must explain why growth rates have shot upwards.
Decreasing death rates without increasing birth control has resulted in an explosive increase in total population size.

Hint 28

(pgs 50, 56)

Front 29

What are some things that have contributed to changing death rates?

Back 29

-Cultural advances (such as the agricultural revolution)
-Improvements in public sanitation.
-Advances in agriculture.
-Control of infectious diseases.

Hint 29

(pg 50)

Front 30

What are some factors that cause periods of sharp population declines among localized groups?

Back 30

-Wars
-Famine
-Disease

Hint 30

(pg 50)

Front 31

What is a demographic transition? When does it occur & why?

Back 31

The falling of both birth & death rates.

Hint 31

It characteristically follows industrialization, probably due to the fact that married couples in an industrial society realize that children are an economic liability.
(pg 52)

Front 32

Historically, changes in birth or death rates have been the main determinants of fluctuations in population. What has become a key factor is recent decades?

Back 32

International migration.

Hint 32

(pg 54)

Front 33

What are some reasons for international migration?

Back 33

-Prospects of higher wages and a more secure economic future (Latin America)
-"Push" factors of immigrants' home country to make them want to leave.
-"Pull" factors of the intended country of emigration, such as worker-recruitment efforts (Philippines to US & Canada).
-Reinforced networking, whereby earlier emigrants facilitate later migration.
-War
-Political or religious persecution.

Hint 33

(pg 54)

Front 34

What are some impacts of international migration?

Back 34

-It has begun to have a marked impact on the ethnic composition of several receiving nations, which provokes worries that newcomers may have a deleterious impact on local economies & culture.
-The long-term effect on the ultimate population size of the receiving nations.

Hint 34

(pgs 54-55)

Front 35

What is age structure? What is one of the most significant features of age structure?

Back 35

The number of people in different age categories within a given population.

Hint 35

The proportion of people who are economically productive in relation to those who are dependent on them.
(pg 56)

Front 36

Is the proportion of economic dependents higher or lower in underdeveloped countries? What impact does this have?

Back 36

Higher.

Hint 36

These countries that are struggling for economic development have an additional heavy burden.
(pg 56)

Front 37

Describe the term "baby-busters."

Back 37

The much smaller cohort at the bottom of the age structure pyramid that replaces the current large crop of youngsters entering the workforce in nations that have recently experienced rapidly declining fertility.

Hint 37

(pg 58)

Front 38

How do "baby-busters" produce a "demographic dividend?"

Back 38

"Baby-busters" produce a boom of economic development, because the working-age population will be at an all-time high in relation to the number of young children & elderly citizens.

Hint 38

(pg 58)

Front 39

Discuss global aging. What are some implications of it?

Back 39

The global life expectancy has lengthened more in the last 50 years than in the previous 5,000.

Hint 39

-Worries about it focus primarily on economic & socio-political considerations (such as the impact on the retirement system, rising health care costs, and the ability to maintain military commitments).
(pgs 57-58)

Front 40

Were urban centers historically a place of population growth or shrinkage and why? Has this changed? What about in the future?

Back 40

Shrinkage due to poor sanitary conditions & crowded living conditions, which led to high mortality rates.

Hint 40

Today, urban centers are self-sustaining in terms of population growth, and it's predicted that virtually all growth in human numbers during the next 25 years will occur in urban areas.
(pg 61)

Front 41

What is a megacity?

Back 41

An urban area with a population of 10 million or more.

Hint 41

(pg 63)

Front 42

Where does population growth occur in Third World countries? What are some problems with this for individual health?

Back 42

Slum areas and shantytowns built around the periphery of large cities.

Hint 42

-Waterborne diseases
-Inadequate or nonexistent garbage collection
-Fires
-Accidental poisonings
-High levels of violence
-Undesirable land occupation, which often includes land in flood planes, mudslide slopes, or dust storms.
(pgs 62-63)

Front 43

In most cases, urbanization is caused by what?

Back 43

The hope for a better, more comfortable life.

Hint 43

(pg 63)

Front 44

Why is it that in the developing world, poverty is increasingly becoming an urban phenomenon?

Back 44

The majority of urban dwellers are migrants who generally lack the specialized education and skills required to penetrate the city's complex social web.

Hint 44

(pg 64)

Front 45

The rapid increase in population growth in urban areas creates what kinds of problems?

Back 45

-Governments must provide safe drinking water and sewage disposal in order to prevent disease outbreaks.
-Air pollution
-Traffic accidents

Hint 45

(pgs 64, 66)

Front 46

In what region is population growth most rapid in the world?

Back 46

The Middle East & North Africa (MENA), and sub-Saharan Africa.

Hint 46

(pg 69)

Front 47

What makes population stabilization difficult in the MENA region?

Back 47

-Cultural factors (such as the importance of family, customs that favor early marriage and stigmatize women who remain single).
-The low educational status of women.
-The near exclusion of women from paid employment.

Hint 47

(pg 69)

Front 48

New jobs will need to be created for this population boom. What happens if they aren't?

Back 48

Discontent in the population could create even more social & political strife in an already unstable region.

Hint 48

(pg 70)

Front 49

What does the UN estimate about the ultimate world population?

Back 49

It will be reached around 2100, at 9.5 billion.

Hint 49

(pg 68)

Front 50

What are some concerns about all these people on the earth for Third World countries?

Back 50

The ability of the natural ecosystems to support everyone has been questioned. Since almost all of the expected increase will occur in the poorest countries where people are most dependent on natural ecosystems, many people think population needs to stabilize before the UN prediction.

Hint 50

(pg 70)