Human Carrying Capacity Is Determined by Food Availability

Hopfenberg, Russell

doi:10.1023/b:poen.0000015560.69479.c1

Cited by 74 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Food availability is still an important factor in determining human population growth, and human beings continue to increase their numbers until presently approaching the limit of food availability. This has been repeatedly evidenced by empirical data (Harris & Kennedy 1999, Hopfenberg 2003. Therefore, any reduction of agricultural production will cause considerable subsistence shortage for a significant portion of the world's population.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…As a solution to the 'patchy' nature of agricultural production data, a logistic model has been applied. Demographers have long used the logistic model of population dynamics to understand the cause-effect relationship between land carrying capacity and population size (Hopfenberg 2003). The logistic model adopted here (Lotka 1925) takes the following form: (4) where N t is the number of individuals in the population, r is the Malthusian parameter representing the population growth rate (i.e.…”

Section: Applying the Logistic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Temperature, aridity thresholds, and population growth dynamics in China over the last millennium

Lee

Zhang²,

Fok³

2009

Clim. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT:The relationship between climate and population has long been discussed, but rarely has it been quantitatively measured. Hence, the relationship remains ambiguous. In the present study, we employ fine-grained temperature, aridity threshold, and population data, together with logistic models and spatial statistics, to quantitatively explore how far climate change affected population growth dynamics in China from 1000 to 1979. Statistical results confirm that cold climate was associated with below average population growth, mediated by regional geographic contexts. In addition, cold climate triggered a southward shift of populations. In short, the climate-population relationship was evident in historical China, and temperature was more influential than the aridity threshold in explaining the fluctuation of population size and shifts in population distribution. The strong influence of temperature change on northward and southward population shifts and the weak influence of the change in the aridity threshold on population growth dynamics are further discussed. The observed temperature-population relationship may give some indication of future demographic effects from climate warming.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Applying the Logistic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature, aridity thresholds, and population growth dynamics in China over the last millennium

Lee

Zhang²,

Fok³

2009

Clim. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Reality is likely just as complex as Hobbs and Fowler described; but it is also clear from the research of Hopfenberg (2003) and Hopfenberg and Pimentel (2001) that the dynamics of human population growth is no longer preternatural but knowable, and that the population dynamics of Homo sapiens is not essentially different from the population dynamics of other species in both the complexity and the simplicity of the governing elements.…”

Section: Andreas Sjödin Center For Disease Control and Preventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In light of the different sets of data presented by Fowler and Hobbs (2003) and by Hopfenberg (2003), perhaps it is a misnomer for Hobbs and Fowler (2004) to uniformly describe the many, complicated ways humanity is changing the natural world as an "unprecedented success." Are particulate and solid-waste pollution or the conversion of biomass into human mass with resulting biodiversity loss examples of success?…”

Section: Andreas Sjödin Center For Disease Control and Preventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflicts of Interests: Declarations for All

Nebert¹

2004

Environ Health Perspect

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…In ecology, carrying capacity is defined as the maximum population of a species that a habitat can support without permanently impairing the habitat's productivity (Rees, 1997). Concerns over human carrying capacity can be traced back to Malthus' portrayal of human population growth restrained by available food supplies (Seidl and Tisdell, 1999), but modern studies mainly focus on the population that can be sustained by regional, national, and global agricultural potential productivity (Cao et al, 1995;Harris and Kennedy, 1999;Hopfenberg, 2003;Yue et al, 2008). Models have been developed to estimate Earth's carrying capacity (Cohen, 1995;Marchetti et al, 1996;Meyer and Ausubel, 1999), but there is little agreement about the most appropriate model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Beijing's human carrying capacity from the perspective of water resource constraints

Yingxuan

Chen

Zhou

et al. 2010

Journal of Environmental Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As the demands on limited water resources intensify, concerns are being raised about the human carrying capacity of these resources. However, few researchers have studied the carrying capacity of regional water resources. Beijing, the second-largest city in China, faces a critical water shortage that will limit the city's future development. We developed a method to quantify the carrying capacity of Beijing's water resources by considering water-use structures based on the proportions of water used for agricultural, industrial, and domestic purposes. We defined a reference structure as 45:22:33 (% of total, respectively), an optimized structure as 40:20:40, and an ideal structure as 50:15:35. We also considered four domestic water quotas: 55, 75, 95, and 115 m 3 /(person·yr). The urban carrying capacity of 10-12 million was closest to Beijing's actual 2003 population for all three water-use structures with urban domestic water use of 75 m 3 /(person·yr). However, after accounting for our underlying assumptions, the adjusted carrying capacity is closer to 5-6 million. Thus, Beijing's population in 2003 was almost twice the adjusted carrying capacity. Based on this result, we discussed the ecological and environmental problems created by Beijing's excessive population and propose measures to mitigate these problems.

show abstract

Human Carrying Capacity Is Determined by Food Availability

Cited by 74 publications

References 21 publications

Temperature, aridity thresholds, and population growth dynamics in China over the last millennium

Temperature, aridity thresholds, and population growth dynamics in China over the last millennium

Conflicts of Interests: Declarations for All

Evaluating Beijing's human carrying capacity from the perspective of water resource constraints

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About