Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
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the Land
Introduction
Population Growth Rates
A Sustainable Society
Modification of Natural Systems
The Land Ethic
The Biosphere
Ecosystems & Biomes
Biodiversity & Species Preservation
Summary
Introduction
century.
Population Distribution
A third of the worlds population lives in just two countries,
China and India, out of 227 nations, and just over half of the
world's people live in six nations (Fig. 2; China, India, U.S.,
Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia).
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Figure 1. Arithmetic
vs. exponential
increases. The area
of irrigated farmland
has increased by a
near-constant value
each year (~3 million
hectares per year, an
arithmetic increase),
whereas the number
of telephone lines
increased at a
constant rate (~5%
per year, an
exponential increase)
since 1960. An
exponential increase
creates the concaveupward graph shown
on the right,
sometimes called a Jcurve.
termed this concept the land ethic, and we use his idea as a
springboard to discuss humans impact on the other members of
the biosphere in the final sections of the chapter. Leopold
suggested that just as in society where we have certain
obligations and privileges, we have similar constraints on our
behavior as members of an ecological community.
Modern biology was born in the mind of Charles Darwin on
the Galapagos Islands (Fig. 3) in 1835. It was here that
Darwins observation that the different islands to a
considerable extent are inhabited by a different set of beings
identified the concept of the ecosystem that links organisms to
specific physical environments. The penultimate section of the
chapter reviews the characteristics of the biosphere including
the flow of energy and nutrients between organisms and the
physical environment. The Galapagos ecosystems of Darwins
time still exist but, like many elements of the biosphere, are
increasingly endangered by human activities. Native species
have been threatened by invaders such as goats, pigs, dogs, and
rats, introduced to the islands following the arrival of
Europeans in the sixteenth century. Recent programs have
successfully removed invasive pests from some islands and the
native vegetation has rebounded as a result.
The presence of increasing numbers of people, all attempting to
improve their standard of living, places greater stress on the
environment, not only from the perspective of resource use, but
also from pollution of air and water, and from the need to
dispose of larger volumes of waste. To evaluate the impact of
human activity on nature we must first identify the parameters
that influence the distribution of specific associations of plants
and animals at a regional scale. These associations are termed
biomes and are composed of multiple interrelated ecosystems.
The final sections of the chapter, ecosystems & biomes and
biodiversity & species preservation review the major biomes
of the world, the human activities that impact the natural order,
and efforts to preserve species that are threatened by extinction.
Figure 3. View of
Galapagos Islands
from space. Image
courtesy of NASA.
Life was relatively short and brutish for much of human history
and death rates were close to birth rates so population increased
relatively slowly until the 1900s. In some cases death rates
exceeded birthrates during outbreaks of rapidly spreading fatal
diseases such as the Black Death (plague) in medieval Europe
which caused global populations to decline. Global population
reached 1 billion in the early 1800s. It took over a hundred
years for the population to double to 2 billion in the late
1920s. Death rates declined during the second half of the 20th
century with the advent of modern medicine, better sanitation,
and improved nutrition. Rapid population growth followed as
the gap between birth rates and death rates widened. Global
population passed the three billion people mark in 1960,
accelerated to 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, and reached
six billion in October 1999 (Figs. 4, 5).
Demographers (people who study changing population trends)
recognize four stages of population growth (Fig. 6):
1. Both birth rate and death rate are high in relatively
primitive societies (e.g., pre-1800s); population growth
rates are low.
Figure 7. World
population growth
rates from 1950
projected to 2050.
During the "Great
Leap Forward" China
tried to restructure its
economy, sending
millions of farm
workers into factories
to increase
manufacturing output.
The result was that
agricultural
production fell and
millions died of
starvation. Image from
Figure 8. Global
population growth
from 1950 to 2050.
Similar growth rates
can yield different
population increases
depending upon the
current population;
likewise, similar
population increases
may result from
different population
growth rates. Image
modified from a U.S.
Census Bureau graph.
Nation
Growth Rate
China
India
United States
Indonesia
Brazil
Russia
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Japan
Nigeria
0.9
1.7
0.9
1.5
1.2
-0.3
2.2
1.8
0.2
3.0
Predicted
Rank 2020
1
2
3
4
7
9
6
8
11
5
A Sustainable Society
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Figure 9. Contrasting
impact of human
activity between the
sparsely populated
central Wyoming
community of Hiland
(that's it in the
background) and the
more densely
populated city of
Toronto, Canada. The
human impact on
Hiland is almost
negligible in
comparison to the
changes in natural
systems that occur in
association with
larger cities.
Sustainable Development
When humans first glimpsed the Earth from space it was from
the Apollo 8 spacecraft orbiting the Moon in December 1968
(Fig. 10). These early views of the planet from the inky
darkness of space helped illustrate for many the unique
wonders of the fragile environment we share on spaceship
Earth. Our isolation in space emphasizes our reliance on our
home planet's resources.
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Relative locations of
Hawaii, Easter Island,
and Nauru in the
Pacific Ocean
The question for us on Earth is, Will we show the same poor
stewardship for our planet as the residents of Easter Island and
Nauru or will we have a more enlightened approach that
considers the long-term consequences of our interactions with
the environment?
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13
Figure 13.
Domesticated land
area as a proportion
of land available for
continents and
selected nations. Bold
values represent land
use for selected
continents.
Land Area
(million
hectares)
957
846
764
297
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Population
(density per
hectare)
0.28
0.19
0.02
3.25
9.60
%
Converted
Area
45
28
60
61
81
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City
Tokyo, Japan
Sao Paulo, Brazil
New York, U.S.
Mexico City, Mexico
Bombay, India
Population
(millions)
26.8
16.4
16.3
15.6
15.1
Growth Rate
(1990-95)
1.41%
2.01%
0.34%
0.73%
4.22%
The total land area available for grain production has decreased
in recent years but production has continued to increase
because of the increased use of fertilizers and improved
farming techniques (Fig. 15). Unfortunately, population growth
has increased more rapidly than grain production and grain
production per person has declined for over a decade.
Improved living standards have resulted in an increasing
demand for grain to support "Western-style" diets that include
grain-fed beef.
Figure 15. Changes
in grain-producing
area and grain
production from 1965
to 1995.
1955
1975
1995
World Grain
Area (million
hectares)
639
708
679
World Grain
Production
(million tons)
759
1237
1703
World Grain
Production per
Person
(kilograms)
273
303
299
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The Biosphere
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Animals are consumers that can't produce their own food from
inorganic materials, such as air or water, but derive their
energy from consuming plants or other organisms and use the
energy to grow and maintain tissue mass. Most of the energy
represented by the plant material is lost by consumers as heat
or is excreted from animals as waste. Primary consumers
(herbivores, e.g., cows, deer) devour plants and secondary
consumers such as wolves and humans eat primary consumers.
The consumers and producers are part of a food chain that
transfers energy between organisms within an ecosystem.
Approximately 5 to 20% of energy is transferred with each step
up the food chain. As energy is lost with each step, the
numbers of organisms decrease with each step up the chain.
glucose + oxygen carbon dioxide + water + energy
from consumption
from respiration
of producers
Figure 18.
Biogeochemical
cycles link some of
the major elements of
the Earth system
including carbon (C),
nitrogen (N), oxygen
(O), phosphorus (P),
and sulfur (S).
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Element
Carbon (C)
Hydrogen (H)
Nitrogen (N)
Oxygen (O)
Phosphorus (P)
Sulfur (S)
Source
Air, water
Water
Air, water, soils
Air
Water, soils
Water, soils
Nutrients/compounds
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Water (H2O)
Gas (N2), nitrate (NO3), ammonium (NH4)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Phosphate (PO4)
Sulfate (SO4)
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Grasslands
Grasslands range from the high-temperature, low-moderate
precipitation of the African savanna characterized by scattered
trees, to the treeless, frigid plains of the tundra straddling the
Arctic Circle in northern Asia and North America (Fig. 21).
The Serengeti Plain of Kenya and Tanzania is the largest
example of savanna grasslands and is home to the largest land
animals such as the elephant, rhino, and giraffe. The tundra is
snow-covered for much of the year and its shallow soils and
rocky surfaces support little more than grasses, sedges, and
lichen that are adapted to the cold, dry climate. The extreme
cold of the tundra environment results in a short growing
season that barely stretches beyond two months. The
environment is characterized by a few large species like the
caribou that can migrate within the ecosystem and an
abundance of short-life-cycle insects.
The temperate grasslands are known by a variety of names,
pampas in South America, prairie in North America, steppe in
Russia, and veldt in South Africa, yet all share common
characteristics. All occur in continental interiors with cold
winters and hot summers, they may have tall or short grasses
depending upon precipitation (or the lack of it), and trees are
only found along waterways. Much of these original temperate
grasslands were converted to croplands, only to be devastated
by wind erosion when droughts wiped out crops poorly adapted
to dry climate cycles. In the U.S. alone, over 100 million
hectares of prairie is gone with only a few hundred acres left in
isolated remnants in states like Iowa and Kansas (Fig. 21).
Bison, pronghorn antelope, and prairie dogs, were abundant
throughout the prairies until the prairie became domesticated
and some species (bison, black-footed ferret) came close to the
brink of extinction.
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Forests
Three principal forest biomes can be separated on the basis of
the types of vegetation in each. Boreal forests (taiga) of
northern latitudes are composed of coniferous evergreens
(spruce, fir, pine) growing on acidic soils. Such environments
are characterized by cold temperatures and low plant diversity.
Moose, wolf, bear, and lynx are characteristic of boreal forest
environments. Much of the eastern U.S. and northern Europe
are covered by temperate forests dominated by broadleaf
deciduous tree species (oak, sycamore, maple, poplar) that lose
their leaves prior to their dormant winter season. The loss of
leaves during fall provides nutrients for the underlying soils.
Areas of especially high rainfall may be home to temperate
rain forests (e.g., Pacific Northwest) with both evergreen and
deciduous species, including the giant redwoods. The
temperate forests are home to the tallest species on Earth, the
coastal redwoods as well as animals such as fox, deer, and
squirrel.
Figure 22. Rain forest
destruction, Brazil.
Dark areas show
remaining rain forest.
Vegetation has been
destroyed by fires set
to clear lands for
slash-and-burn
agriculture. Original
image courtesy of
NASA's EarthRISE
database.
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Deserts
Dry climates are characterized by hot and cold deserts and
semi-desert environments such as chaparral. These
environments are home to plants adapted to conserve water
(long roots, succulent tissues) and burrowing animals that
know enough to stay out of the sun. Hot deserts have high
temperatures throughout the year and are home to a few plants
that cling to life on a substrate of sand or rock (e.g., Sahara,
North Africa). Cacti are relatively common in temperate
deserts that have hot summers but cool winters (e.g., Mojave
Desert, southeast California; Fig. 23). Animals are rare in
desert environments but camels, scorpions, and the kangaroo
rat have adapted to life in such extreme conditions.
Chaparral, also known as Mediterranean shrubland, is
characterized by dry summers but has a similar total rainfall as
some temperate grasslands. It contains woody shrubs and may
have grassy woodlands with species such as the cork oak,
olive, and eucalyptus trees.
Mountains
Mountains represent a special case as their increasing
elevations have the same effect as increasing latitude.
Temperatures decline and precipitation increases as both
elevation and latitude increase. Equatorial mountain (alpine)
biomes are characterized by tundra vegetation at high
elevations and descend through coniferous (boreal), deciduous
(temperate), and tropical (rain) forests with decreasing altitude.
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Loss of Biodiversity
Few biomes remain in their original state today as many have
been modified by a variety of human activities. Environmental
changes may be slow or rapid and may occur at local, regional
or national scales. Natural environments change as human
activity intrudes into an otherwise pristine environment (Fig.
24). Natural vegetation is cleared to create land for crops
and/or grazing. The loss of natural lands to agriculture or
urbanization inevitably results in habitat destruction and may
be accompanied by predator control efforts to reduce
populations of species (e.g., wolves) considered a threat to
domestic animals or the human population.
Figure 24. A
resourceful osprey
finds an
unconventional
nesting site on this
channel marker in
Kentucky Lake.
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Summary
1. What is the difference between exponential and arithmetic
growth?
Exponential growth occurs at a constant rate (e.g., 5%) whereas
arithmetic growth increases by a constant amount (e.g., 5 acres
per year). Exponential growth will be the most rapid. Imagine
two people who each run 1 km a day for exercise. Person A
decides to increase the distance they run by 100 meters per day.
Person B decides to increase their distance by 10% of the
previous day's run (don't ask why, they just really love math).
After 10 days, A is running 2 km and B is running 2.6 km. Ten
days later A covers 3 km but B must run 6.7 km to keep on
pace. After another 10 days, A runs 4 km and is feeling pretty
good but B has to run over 17 km and must run nearly 2 km
further each day just to keep on their exponential pace. B gives
up and changes his exercise routine to include eating donuts
and watching football on his big-screen TV.
2. How many people are there in the world and where do they
live?
The current global population is a little over 6 billion and is
increasing by 78 million people each year. Most of these
people live in Asia. China and India have over 2.2 billion
people between them and 12 of the 20 most populous nations
are in Asia (3 in Africa, 1 in South America, 2 in Europe, 2 in
North America). The U.S. is a long way behind India but it is
the third most heavily populated country in the world.
3. How is population growth determined?
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