Human-EnvironmentInteraction

Questions To Be Answered:1. How do people use their environment?

2. Have they changed it?

3. How have people responded to changes in their environment?

Changes in EnvironmentChanges to the environment can be characterized as one of the following: intentional, accidental, favorable, or destructive.

All environmental changes have consequences. We, as humans, need to determine if the costs are worth the benefits or how to offset the negative consequences associated with our decisions.

Humans And The Environment

–Human beings adapt to the environment–Human beings modify the environment–Human beings depend on the environment

Adapt or ModifyWhat is the difference between adapting to or modifying the environment?

Adaption is changing yourself to meet the needs created by the environment

Modifying is changing the environment to meet your needs

Carrying Capacity:Carrying Capacity is the maximum number of individuals that an area's resources can sustain indefinitely without significantly depleting or degrading those resources

Factors That Change C.C.•LOCATION•GLOBAL CHANGES•TYPES OF TECHNOLOGY USES TO EXTRACT AND PROCESS THE RESOURCES

Progression of Population Growth in Relation to Carrying CapacityExponential Population Growth:

1. Growth starts out slowly, enters a rapid growth phase and then levels off when the carrying capacity for that species has been reached

2. The size of the population then fluctuates slightly above or below the carrying capacity.

3. Reproductive lag time may cause the population to overshoot the carrying capacity temporarily. Reproductive lag time is the time required for the birth rate to decline and the death rate to increase in response to resource limits.

4. In this scenario, the population will suffer a crash or dieback to a lower level near the carrying capacity unless a large number of individuals can emigrate to an area with more favorable conditions.

An area's carrying capacity is not static. The carrying capacity may be lowered by resource destruction and degradation during an overshoot period or extended through technological and social changes.

Why the decline in C.C. after an overshoot?

Relationship Between Population and C.C.

What is happening below?