When wild plant and animal populations are logged, fished, or hunted, only the oldest or largest individuals tend to be taken. Many of the commercially important species are long lived and are slow to begin reproducing. If harvesting is not regulated carefully and exploitation is intense, what impact does harvesting have on a population's age structure? How might harvesting affect the population's life table and growth rate?

The current carrying capacity of Earth for the human population may have been inflated by

a. Demographic momentum

b. The tendency for women to want to control family size

c. An artificially low number of density-independent factors

d. Our use of fossil fuels

e. Recent population crashes

Which of the following statements about human populations in industrialized countries is correct?

a. Birth rates and death rates are high

b. Average family size is relatively large

c. The population has undergone the demographic transition

d. The survivorship curve is Type II

Which of the following statements about human populations in industrialized countries is incorrect?

a. Birth rates and death rates are high.

b. Average family size is relatively small.

c. The population has undergone the demographic transition.

d. The survivorship curve is Type I.

According to data on ecological footprints

a. The carrying capacity of the world is 10 billion

b. Earth's resources are sufficient to sustain future generations at current levels of consumption

c. The ecological footprint of individuals in the United States is more than twice the world average

d. Nations with the largest ecological footprints have the fastest population growth rates

Demographic momentum refers to the tendency for

a. Low population growth rates to continue to decline

b. High population growth rates to continue to increase

c. Populations to continue to grow in number even when growth rates reach zero

d. Populations to continue to grow in number even when women are reducing the number of children they bear

e. Women to continue to have children even though they no longer wish to

What are some factors that might have a density-dependent limiting effect on population growth?

What is survivorship?

What does a survivorship curve show?

Explain what the three survivorship curves tell us about humans, squirrels, and clams.