Week 3: What is the significance of population dynamics to environmental and human endeavors?

Day 7:

• What is a population and how do you describe one?
• Why is an understanding of population dynamics important from an environmental perspective?
• Exponential growth without and with restraint, deterministic vs. chaotic behavior.
• Population growth versus consumption rates.
• Readings for the week:
  • Zen, Stakes, Options and Some Natural Limits to a Sustainable World, in The Earth Around Us.
  • Buchwald, What else should my neighbor know? In The Earth Around Us..

Day 8:

• How many people can the earth sustain? Concept of carrying capacity, local and global.
• Prey-predator population dynamics.
• Exotic and invasive species.
• Examples of population histories (red tides and lemmings into the sea).

Day 9:

• Species populations in ecosystems and the importance of biodiversity.
• The importance of genetic diversity.
• Writing exercise: how may cultural diversity be significant environmentally?
• Why did human population growth rate increase in the 1800s?
• Why has human population growth decreased in the past few decades?

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