Populations of the World

By Adam and Kostjan

Purpose: The purpose of this post is to present and compare the demographic indicators of many different countries throughout the world, specifically more developed and less developed nations.

WORKING WITH DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

1.  China and India have the largest populations in the world. Which of these two countries adds more people to its population annually?

Calculations: I calculated this by applying the rate of natural increase to the population of each country.

Answer: India adds more people to its population annually than China.

2.  What proportion of the world’s people live the following continents/regions and what are the projected proportions by 2025 and 2050?

Calculations: I calculated this by dividing the projected proportions for each year by the world population for each year to get the percentages for each country.

(Graph 1: Regional Distributions of World’s Population)

What trends are reflected in the bar chart?

Answer: In the bar chart, the trends that are reflected are Oceania slightly increases in percentage of people by 2050, Europe decreases in percentage of population by 2050, Latin America very slightly decreases in percentage by 2050, North America slightly increases in percentage by 2050, and Asia decreases in percentage by 2050.

3.  What proportion of the world’s people live in less developed countries (LDCs) and in more developed countries (MDCs) today? What proportion is projected to live in LDCs  and MDCs in 2025 and in 2050?

Calculations: I calculates this by dividing the population of each country for a specific year by the world population for each year to get the percentage of the world’s population.

Answer: In the less developed countries, the percentage of people will increase by 2050, and in the more developed countries, the percentage of population will decrease by 2050.  Economically, it does not seem good that the population will increase in less developed countries from today’s point of view, but if as the population increases the country becomes more developed, the increase in population will be good for the economy.  In the more developed countries, the decrease in population will be bad for the economy because there will be less people to spend money.  The social implications of the changing of proportions of the world’s people will not really change because the changing of proportions is small.  It is not as if more developed countries will have a higher percentage of people than less developed countries; the proportion will basically remain the same.

4.  Examine the crude birth rate, crude death rate, and rate of natural increase of any three countries (one being your own country) listed on the World Population Data Sheet.

Calculations: To calculate the rate of natural increase, we took the difference of the crude birth rate and crude death rate.

Answer: The mathematical relationship is that the rate of natural increase is the difference between birth rates and death rates.  The conclusion of the three countries we chose, which are the U.S., Albania, and Egypt have an annual increase in population.

5.  Select 2 LDCs and 2 MDCs from the data sheet and compute the age-dependency ratios for each.

• What factors do you think contribute to a high age-dependency ratio?

• What are some economic and social consequences of a high age-dependency ratio?

Calculations: We calculated this by adding the percentages of population under the age of 15 and over the age 0f 65, then dividing that by the difference of the two.  We then multiplied the answer by 100.

Answer: The factors that contribute to a high age dependency ratio are more people being economically productive within the age group of 15 to 65 years.  The less developed countries seem to have a higher age dependency ratio meaning that there is a larger percentage of people ranging from ages 15 to 65 that are economically productive, especially compared to more developed countries.  This makes sense because to keep a stable economy, less developed countries require more people to be working and be economically productive.  An economic consequence of having a high age dependency ratio is that the economy has a better chance of growing because more people, especially in the age group of 15 to 65, are part of the work force.  A social consequence is that more people simply have to work, so there is less free time and it is socially unfortunate.

INTERPRETING AGE-SEX GRAPHS

 

France

Demographic Indicators	Value
Total midyear population	64,768,000
Birth Rate (per 1,000)	12.4
Death Rate (per 1,000)	8.6
Natural Increase (%)	0.38
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 births)	3.3
Total Fertility Rate	1.9
Life Expectancy at Birth for males	77.9
Life Expectancy at Birth for females	84.4
Population <15 yrs. (%) / >65 yrs. (%)	18/17
GNP/capita (US $)	34,400

(Chart 1: France Demographic Indicators)

(Chart 2: France Population Pyramid)

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php

Vietnam

Demographic Indicators	Value
Total midyear population	89,571,000
Birth Rate (per 1,000)	17.3
Death Rate (per 1,000)	6
Natural Increase (%)	1.13
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 births)	21.6
Total Fertility Rate	1.9
Life Expectancy at Birth for males	69.5
Life Expectancy at Birth for females	74.7
Population <15 yrs. (%) / >65 yrs. (%)	25/8
GNP/capita (US $)	2,700

(Chart 3: Vietnam Demographic Indicators)

(Chart 4: Vietnam Population Pyramid)

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php

(Image 1)  http://wasatchecon.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vietnam-population_density1999.jpg

When comparing these two tables of demographic indicators, some details took me by surprise.  While understanding that Vietnam is a much less developed country than France, I noticed that the crude birth rate is higher in Vietnam than in France, and at the same time the crude death rate is lower.  This means that per 1000 people, there are more births and less deaths in comparison to France.  This is good for Vietnam, which is a developing country.  The survival rate seems pretty high, at least compared to a highly developed country such as France.  However, population control becomes an issue.  The rate of natural increase in Vietnam is about 1.13%, whereas the rate of natural increase in France is about .38%.  France is the successor when it comes to population control, which is key because as discussed numerous times in class, overpopulation directly affects the amount of available resources.  Therefore, the high birthrate/low death rate of Vietnam actually serves a negative purpose in the case of population control.  Vietnam may be way too overpopulated in relation to the resources available.  Having a greater midyear population than France, which has more readily available resources because of its high development, Vietnam must have an overpopulation problem.  I also noticed that the percentage of the population that is less than 15 years and the percentage of the population that is greater than 65 years are nearly identical in France.  The percentage for under 15 is 18% and over 65 is 17%.  However, in Vietnam the percentage of the population that is under 15 years old is 25% and the percentage of the population that is over 65 years old is 8%.  Although the death rate is lower in Vietnam than in France, most of the population does not seem to live to see the age of 65 in Vietnam.  Also, about a quarter of the whole population is less than 15 years old.  That is incredible and just goes to prove how overpopulation in Vietnam is becoming worse.  With a population under the age 0f 15 like this, imagine what Vietnam’s population will be in 50 years!  According to Molles (2010), a greater percentage of the population being young shows that the population appears “to be either stable or growing.” (pg. 235).  This is because the younger population is successfully replacing the dying out, older population.  Although the birth rate is high and death rate is fairly low, the infant morality rate of Vietnam is very high.  This just shows how large the birth rate is, because even after a good amount of infants die, there is still about 25% of the population that is under 15 years old.  This pattern can be compared to those of fish, as Molles (2010) explains in “High Mortality Among the Young” (pg. 233), which also have a high birth rate and high mortality rate among that young.  Overall, the fact that Vietnam has a lower death rate than France is the only thing that shocked me.  Everything else seems to make sense.  The huge population, large birth rate and rate of natural increase, lower life expectancies and huge population under 15 years all accurately describe a less developed, developing country.

References:

1.  Molles, M.C. (2010). Ecology. Concepts and Applications. 5th Ed. NY: McGraw-Hill.

2.  Chart 2.  http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php

3.  Chart 4.  http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php

4.  Image 1. http://wasatchecon.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/vietnam-population_density1999.jpg

5.  U.S. Census Bureau “International

Database,” available at http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/

6.  World Population Data Sheet for 2010 (http://www.prb.org/pdf10/10wpds_eng.pd)

 

Environment’s Effects On Performance

Purpose

The purpose of this post is to introduce my desired research topic, give some background information on it, and aid myself in getting started with the research.

My Topic

The topic of my presentation will be how the environment affects the “performance” of organisms.

Relation To Class

This topic relates to class because we actually briefly discussed the topic.  We learned that, as Molles (2010) states, “most perform nest under a narrower range of conditions.” (pg. 104).  He is, of course, speaking of organisms.  In class we discussed how temperature affects performance, but temperature is not the only factor.  Molles (2010) states that other factors such as “water, and light” (pg. 104) also affect performance.  I would like to investigate deeper into this topic because I find it very interesting.

Why Should You Care?

First off, I feel like the class should care about my presentation because it is simply an interesting topic.  From my presentation, the audience will learn what factors organisms truly desire and need to perform at their best.  They will learn about the Principle of Allocation and energy limitation.  Overall, the audience will leave much smarter than they were before my presentation.

Online Credibility

The online source I chose was http://www.the-aps.org/press/disease/environment.htm.  This article discusses how certain environmental factors affect human performance.  Extreme heat can decrease human performace due to ” the body’s heat production and the heat gained by the environment.” (The Environment And Physiology).  Extreme cold can also decrease human performance.  The body must use energy to produce heat, thus leaving less energy for performance.  The article also speaks of negative effects on performance due to altitude.  High altitude affects the amount of oxygen being transferred to the bloodstream, thus affecting performance.

The site I selected, which is an organization site, is considered a credible source because it is a site for the organization “The American Physiology Society”.  There is a link to the website, an address, and numerous contact information.  There are also numerous citations throughout the article which seem to be very legitimate.

References

1.  Molles, M.C. (2010). Ecology. Concepts and Applications. 5th Ed. NY: McGraw-Hill.

2.  ”The Environment And Physiology”.  Retrieved November 9th, 2010 from http://www.the-aps.org/press/disease/environment.htm

Analyzing Ecological Footprints

The purpose of this post is to analyze and compare the effects of the consumption of food made from plant and animal products on the environment.  This is the food intake aspect of Ecological Footprints.

EF (Ecological Footprint) is a measurement of the area of land needed to fulfill the resource requirements of the population’s demands, or in simpler terms, the amount of Earths needed to support the lifestyles of individuals or populations.

Energy and nutrients always flow from the producer to the consumer.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/images/foodchain/simplechain.gif

“Food contains nutrients which are potential energy for living organisms. Flow of nutrients therefore, translates into flow of energy. In ecological systems, a rough rule of thumb is that when energy is transferred from plants to plant-eaters or from pray to predator, the efficiency is only 10%.”

The image “below illustrates this efficiency of transfer of energy from primary producers to primary, secondary and tertiary consumers. The efficiency is only 10% as energy flow from one level to the other. The reason is that when one organism consumes another, most energy gets used up in respiration rather than in building new tissue (body mass).” (Assignment 5)

Diet Chart

(if the chart is not visible to you…)

Diet	Source of Calories	Number of Calories	Ecologically Equivalent Calories	Total Ecologically Equivalent Calories
100% plant  0% animal	Plant	2,000	2,000	2,000
	Animal	0	0
90% plant  10% animal	Plant	1,800	1,800	3,800
	Animal	200	2,000
50% plant  50% animal	Plant	1,000	1,000	11,000
	Animal	1,000	10,000
0% plant  100 % animal	Plant	0	0	20,000
	Animal	2,000	20,000
20% plant  80 % animal	Plant	400	400	16,400
	Animal	1,600	16,000

(EEC = Ecologically Equivalent Calories)

Days to Years

To support me for a year, Diet 1 would take 730,000 EEC, Diet 2 would take 1,387,000 EEC, Diet 3 would take 40,15,000 EEC, and Diet 4 would take 7,300,000 EEC.

All Green, All Meat

Someone participating in the diet that consists strictly of animal products, which is Diet 4, consumes 10 times the amount of EECs as someone participating in the diet that consists strictly of plant products, which is Diet 1, does.  By including as little as 10% of my calories from animal sources, which would reduce my calories from plant sources from 100% to 90%, I would be consuming an additional 1,800 EECs per day.  This additional 1,800 EECs would bring my total EECs from 2,000 to 3,800 per day.

http://www.eco-asia.info/content/sites/default/files/w-meat1-veg-meat.jpg

My Diet

I predict that about 80% of the calories from my own diet come from animal sources, and about 20% of the calories come from plant sources.  If this was true, the total EECs resulting from my diet would be about 16,400, which is an extreme amount more than the 2,000 EECs resulting from a strictly vegetarian diet.

http://www.takeabite.cc/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/cheeseburger.jpg

Challenges?

The never-ending increase in population is resulting in a greater demand for food.  As it is obvious from the chart above, any food, whether it be from plant or animal sources, require resources.  The usage of these resources has impacts on the environment; some larger than others.  In that case, the main challenge is making sure there are enough resources to go around.  The fact that many people in poorer nations develop a taste for an American style diet, which is rich in animal protein and fat, means that there will be a larger impact on the environment.  This is because, as shown on the chart above, every calorie coming from an animal source is ecologically equivalent to 10 calories from a plant source.  Basically, one could say that eating food made from animal sources is ten times worse for the environment than eating food made from plant sources.  Therefore, the main challenge of providing food for the world is making sure the planet ecologically has enough resources to go around, and this challenge is worsened by the fact that more and more people are developing a taste for the American style diet.  Not only does this planet have to provide food for everyone, it must try and fulfill people’s preferences.  Sadly, these preferences mostly consists of animal products.

Polar Bears: Dealing With Extreme Temperatures

Background of Polar Bears

The purpose of this post is to give some background information on polar bears, and explain how and why polar bears need to regulate their temperature.

Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) are very large creatures.  Female polar bears can weigh 330 to 550 pounds, and male polar bears can sometimes exceed 1,500 pounds (Polar Bear Facts and Information, n.d.).  Polar bears are the largest predator on land (Emma T. 2001).  They reside in the arctic tundra biome (The tundra biome, n.d.).  Most populations of polar bears exist in Alaska, Canada, Russia, Denmark, and Norway (Polar Bear Facts and Information, n.d.).  The climate of the tundra is normally cold and dry, but short summers do exists.  Water availability is fairly decent in the summer.  Winters. however, are fairly dry.  As Molles (2010) states, “because average annual temperatures are so low, precipitation exceeds evaporation.  As a consequence, the short summers are soggy and the tundra landscape is alive with ponds and streams,” (pg. 36).  The average temperature in the winter is -34 degrees celsius and is 3-12 degrees celsius in the summer (The tundra biome, n.d.).  

Polar Bears need to thermoregulate because of the extremely harsh, cold temperatures of the arctic tundra.  It is essential for polar bears to stay warm in these conditions because, as Molles (2010) refers to, being too cold will negatively effect the performance of the bear (pg. 105).

Thermoregulation of Polar Bears

Polar bears lose their body heat due to the cold temperatures of the arctic tundra.  This heat loss is due to radiation , conduction, and convection.  The contact with snow results in heat loss due to conduction.  Cold winds in the tundra can result in heat loss due to convection.  The main source of heat loss would be due to radiative heat flux; the losing of heat from the bear’s body into the very cold surroundings, as Molles (2010) explains (pg. 110).  In turn, polar bears rely on conduction by using their warm fur to heat up their cold bodies.  Radiation is also reliable to the bears in the sense that the sun heats them up.  Being endotherms (Adaptions in Ectothermic and Endothermic animals to extreme climates polar bears mainly rely on metabolic energy, n.d.), polar bears mainly rely on metabolic energy to heat their bodies, as Molles (2010) mentioned (pg. 111).

Many of polar bears’ heating strategies are due to their adaptations.  The two layers of warm fur and blubber, which can be up to 4.5 inches thick, insulate the bear.  Small ears and tail also reduce heat loss (Polar Bear Facts and Information, n.d.).   They also have pads on their feet with long hairs between the pads to protect the feet against the coldness of the snow and ice (Adaptions in Ectothermic and Endothermic animals to extreme climates, n.d.)

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The other way of staying warm is by using metabolic heat.  When the body temperature gets too cold, the metabolic rate will increase due to a thyroid secretion (splitting of the thyroid gland).  If the temperature continues to drop, shivering will occur (Adaptions in Ectothermic and Endothermic animals to extreme climates, n.d.).  It is important for polar bears to maintain a stable body temperature because if not, their performance would lack, as we discussed in class.  If their body temperatures reached the extreme, the result could be death.

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References

1.  Molles, M.C. (2010). Ecology. Concepts and Applications. 5th Ed. NY: McGraw-Hill.

2.  ”Polar Bear Facts and Information (n.d.)”.  Retrieved October 19, 2010 from http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears/bear-essentials-polar-style

3.  Emma T. (2001). “Polar Bear”.  Blue Planet Biomes. Retrieved from http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/polar_bear.htm

4.  ”The tundra biome (n.d.)”.  Retrieved October 19, 2010 from http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/polar_bear.htm

5.  ”Adaptions in Ectothermic and Endothermic animals to extreme climates, n.d.”.  Retrieved October 19, 2010 from http://www.collegetermpapers.com/TermPapers/Science/Adaptions_in_Ectothermic_and_Endothermic_animals_to_extreme_climates.shtml

Media Citations

1. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/2402804663_452c0a4b11.jpg

2. http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/LRG/15/1555/NO9DD00Z.jpg

3.  http://www.travel-location-blog.com/data/media/13/polar-bear-habitat_895.jpg

Global Warming/Water Scarcity

I think that global warming will increase the proportion of the Earth’s water that resides in the oceans.  As the polar ice caps warm up, they will melt into the ocean.  This water, over large amounts of melting, eventually increase the amount of water in the ocean by a huge amount.

There are many negative human influences on the ocean.  The influences first appeared to be negative when the killing of whales seriously declined the whale population.  Now, fishing is having the same effect on fish populations.  One of the worst influences is littering, in all forms.  The general misconception is that the ocean is so big, littering won’t really matter.  Maybe a soda can won’t do much, but dumping mass amounts of wastes into the ocean is horrible.  This can and will affect us considering we eat animals who live in this environment and even swim in the ocean.  According to an online article http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Po-Re/Pollution-of-the-Ocean-by-Plastic-and-Trash.html, all of this pollution begins to affect the beaches, which is unappealing, but mostly a health hazard to humans since we lay all over these beaches.  The article also introduced in interesting point about “ghost fishing”.  This is when marine life accidentally gets caught in our garbage; unintentional fishing.  Overall, ocean pollution affects many aspects of this planet.

I have never had a serious water scarcity or drought where major precautions had to be taken.  I think if I ever experienced one, it would be a horrible thing, but also a great wake up call .  To conserve water, I would have to limit my time on sink and shower usage.  I also would not drink more water than needed.  I would really have to think of the harm I am causing by over using water not only to the world, but to my own community.  The cause for scarcity could be too much usage of water or lack of rain.

Water scarcity might be a way of life for some places around the world because the climate may be very dry, there may be no bodies of fresh water around, and the country may be economically incapable of affording imported water.  Some people have no choice of where they will settle, so people do live in dry, desert climates.

Between 1950 and 2050, the total world population is predicted to change from about 2.5 billion to  about 9.5 billion people.  Between 1950 and 2050, the average world per capita water availability is predicted to change from about 17,000 m^3 to about 4,000 m^3.  As population increases, water availability decreases.  This is the case because the higher the population, the greater demand for water begins to exist.  Every single person needs water to survive, so if there are more people, more water is needed.  If these predictions come true, the world in 2050 will be different than how it is today because it will be much harder to survive.  Populations who already have trouble getting water may die off.  Water will be scarce all over the entire world.  Water scarcity will become an issue in places where it is not today.  I think water scarcity will be a problem in every single country.

Ecological Footprints

The location/landmark I chose to locate with Google Earth was The Aristotelous Square.  The coordinates of this location are 40:37:57 N, 22:56:28 E.

I located my house on Google Earth, which is located in South Brunswick, New Jersey of the USA.  The coordinates are 40:25:50 N, 74:31:52 W.

Here is a picture of my highschool; I could not find a picture of my house.

The biome of my area is a temperate forest.  Temperate forests are found Atlantic Sea coast of North America, which is where New Jersey is located.  They are mostly found between 40 and 50 degrees latitude, which is where my house is located.  I am extremely close to New York City, which is built on land that once supported a temperate forest.  The climate of 3-4 month winters with heavy snowfall describes my area perfectly.  My town is full of deciduous trees.  The summers are not very dry in my area, which is how the climate in temperate forests are where deciduous trees are more abundant than conifers.  All of these aspects of my climate are referenced in the textbook.  Thus, I completely agree with the book’s explanation of a temperate forest’s climate.

Country	Ecological Footprint (EF) (hectares per person)	Proportion relative to world average	Proportion relative to world area available	Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita –  (in PPP dollar) (obtain these data from Globalis)
Bangladesh	0.5	0.22	0.28	1700
Colombia	1.3	0.58	0.73  (1.3/1.78)	6370
Mexico	2.6	1.17	1.46	8970
Sweden	6.1	2.74	3.43	26050
United Arab Emirates	9.9	4.44	5.56
Thailand	1.4	0.63	0.79	7010
United States	9.5	4.26	5.34	35750
World Average	2.23	1.0  (2.23/2.23)	1.25  (2.23/1.78)	leave this cell empty
South Korea	3.4	1.52	1.91	16950
Canada	6.4	2.87	3.59	29480
Nigeria	1.2	0.54	0.67	860
France	5.8	2.6	3.26	26920
Your personal footprint	114.64	51.41	64.4	leave this cell empty

The ecological footprints (EF) of people living in Bangladesh is so small because they do not consume as many natural resources as some countries, such as the USA, so they don’t need as much area of land or sea to produce these resources.  The EF is so large in the United States because we use so many natural resources at such a higher rate that we need much more space to produce these resources and keep up with our consumption.

When looking at Table 1,  it is obvious to me that the greater the average GDP of a country, the larger the EF.

My personal footprint is extremely high.  It is higher than the footprints of people in my country (USA), Bangladesh, and every other nation listed on the table.  To reduce my footprint, I could reduce my water usage by a lot, and I could start buying energy efficient products and organic, healthier foods.

Short Answer

The hypothesis, “Periodic fires may prevent tree seedlings from becoming established in grassland” is definitely suitable.  It is an educated guess.  To test this, I would simply have to wait around and observe if any fires occur, and if they do, record data on how often they occur and where they occur.  I would have to determine the damage resulted by these fires.