ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Image Reference: Human population has exploded since 1 A.D., animation reveals • Earth.com
Schedule for Midterm Period:
• Week 9: May 5, 2021 – Summative Assessment 2: Modules 4 & 5
• Week 10: May 12, 2021 – Module 6: Biodiversity, Stability, and
Endangered Species
• Week 11: May 19, 2021 – Module 7: Atmosphere and Climate Change
• Week 12: May 26, 2021 – Module 8: Water, Anywhere!
• Week 13: June 2, 2021 – Summative Assessment 3: Modules 6, 7, and
8
• Week 14: June 9, 2021- SELF-CARE/ME TIME
Please help
us reach
10K
members!!!
MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Cognitive Objective: Understand the connection
among the law of limits, tolerance, and population
dynamics.
2. Affective Objective: Join in the awareness campaign
locally and globally on the care of Earth, the common
home of all species.
3. Psychomotor Objective: Initiate consumer’s
awareness in avoidance of too much consumerism and
waste of valuable resources.
Human population has exploded since 1 A.D., animation reveals • Earth.com
How many humans can the earth
really support?
 The Big Three:
Limits, Tolerance,
and Population
Limiting factors vs.
Law of Tolerance
Population Dynamics
Population
• A group of interbreeding individuals of the same
species occupying the same area at the same
time.

POPULATION ECOLOGY
 The study of how population grows

DEMOGRAPHY-
 The study of birth rates, death rates, age distributions,
and the sizes of populations, including its density and
how it is quantified
Population SIZE
• Number of individuals in a population

Population DENSITY
• Number of individuals in some specified area
or volume of a habitat
Ex. Number of frogs per acre of rainforest or the
number of amoebas per liter of pond water
POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
Factors affecting Population size:
(Birth rate + Immigration) – (Death rate + emigration) =
Growth rate

Natality Mortality

Immigration Emigration
POPULATION GROWTH
• Factors that contribute to the population size:
• 1. NATALITY (birth rate)-the number of species that are born
• 2. MORTALITY (death rate)- the number of species that die
• 3. IMMIGRATION – the number of species that entered the land
• 4. EMIGRATION- the number of species that leave the land
 Population
Growth
Patterns and
Carrying
capacity

Image Reference: j-spahed curve and s-curvepopulation - Bing

UNLIMITED POPULATION GROWTH LEADS TO
J-SHAPED POPULATION GROWTH CURVES

Exponential Growth rate • A population of 2,000

mice with a per capita
growth rate of 0.4
individuals per month
means 800 new mice
are added in the first
month (2,000 x 0.4)
• In the next month,
2,800 x 0.4 = 1,120
mice
Limited resources lead to s-shaped
population growth curves
Carrying capacity and logistic growth

Carrying capacity Logistic growth

• Maximum number of individuals • A population in an environment
of a species that a given with limited resources
environment can sustain • S-shaped curve
indefinitely
• In any environment, the carrying capacity for a specific species
depends on physical and biological factors, both of which can change
over time
• A prolonged drought can lower the carrying capacity for a plant
species and for any animals that depend on it
• The carrying capacity for a species can also be affected by the
presence of other species with similar resource needs
• Ex. A grassland can support only so many grazers; one or more grass-
eating species lowers the carrying capacity for all of them
Biotic potential and limiting factor

Biotic potential Limiting factor

• Maximum possible growth rate
if resources were unlimited and
there were no predators or
pathogens
• Any essential resource that is in
short supply on population
growth
• Food, mineral ions, refuge from
predators and safe nesting sites
Limits on growth:
• Imagine a bacterial cell in a culture flask with all the glucose and
other nutrients bacteria require for growth
• Initially, growth will be exponential, but as population grows, the cells
will begin to use up the available nutrients
• Lack of nutrients slows bacterial cell division and then eventually
stops them
• When the nutrient supply becomes completely exhausted, the last
cells will die of starvation
 No population can grow
exponentially forever. Remove one
limiting factor and another one
becomes limiting
• Like other organisms, bacteria generate metabolic wastes
• Over time, accumulated waste would poison the habitat and prevent
further growth
• When nutrients are continually replenished, access to a waste-free
environment becomes the limiting factor for the bacteria
Age Structure
Reproductive Strategies
and Limiting Factors
r- selected Vs. K-selected
Dependent-density Vs. Independent-density
Life History Patterns
• Set of heritable traits such as rate of development, age at first
reproduction, number of breeding events, and life span
R and k selection represent two different life
history strategies
Reproductive strategies
r-selection
• Selection that favors parents who
produce offspring as quickly as
possible
• Species that frequently colonize
new habitats or live in
unpredictable habitats
• As a result, they tend to have small
body size and a short generation
time
• Example: Plants: dandelions
• Mammals: mice
K-selection
• In species in which populations are
often at or near carrying capacity,
selection favors parents who
maximize the competitive quality
of a few offspring
• Species living in stable
environment oftens are subject to
k-selection
• Examples: redwood trees;
elephants
Life history strategies incorporate traits relating
to survival and competitive ability
Factors that limit population growth
Density-dependent factors
• Decrease birth rates or increase
death rates and they come into
play or worsen with crowding
• Competition among members of a
population for limited resources
• Infectious diseases
• Pathogens and parasites spread
more easily when hosts are
crowded
Density-independent factors
• Decrease births or increase
deaths but crowding does not
influence the likelihood that
these factors will occur, or the
magnitude of their effects
• Fires, snowstorms, earthquakes
and other natural disasters affect
crowded and uncrowded
populations alike
Global Human Population
Image reference: World population – Wikipedia: UN Projections in 2019
World's 18 megacities (each with 10M or more people in 2009 and projected
population in 2015
4 Stages of Demographic Transition in
Industrialized Countries
 Which 3 of these impacts do
you believe have been the
most harmful? How does your
lifestyles contribute directly or
indirectly to each of these
harmful impacts
QUESTIONS:
Key Overpopulation,
environmental overconsumption,
problems: and technology
How can we slow
human
population growth?
1. Economic Development (reducing poverty)
2. Family planning
CASE STUDY:
3. Empowering Women The One-Child
Policy of China
 1. The world’s population continues to increase, but growth rates
vary greatly across regions.
2. Nine countries will make up more than half of the projected
• 10 key population growth between now and 2050.
3. Rapid population growth presents challenges for sustainable
findings of development
4. In some countries, growth of the working age population is
the report creating opportunities for economic growth.

of World 5. Globally, women are having few babies, but fertility remains high
in some parts of the world.
Population 6. People are living longer, but those in the poorest countries still
live 7 years less than the global average.
Prospects 7. The world’s population is growing older, with persons over age
65 being the fastest -growing age group.
2019 8. Falling proportions of working-age people are putting pressure
on social protection systems
9. A growing number of countries are experiencing a reduction in
population size.
10. Migration has become a major component of population
change in some countries.
 Population
Dynamics and SDGs
4 GLOBAL DEMOGRAPHIC MEGATRENDS: population
growth, population ageing, migration and urbanization
Versus Citizens of the World:
economic, social development and environmental Center of Sustainable
sustainability Development
Kumar P and Mina U. 2018. Fundamental of Ecology and Environment. 2nd
edition. Pathfinder Publication New Delhi, India
Miller GT and Spoolman SE. 2010. Environmental Science. 13th International
edition. Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning (e-book)
Philippine Demographics 2020.
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/philippinesdemographics/#pop
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division
(2019)
World Population Prospects 2019, Volume II: Demographic Profiles
(ST/ESA/SER.A/427). www.unpopulation.org

REFERENCES