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Effects of mode of reproduction: sexual and asexual

Effects of population size.

• Life histories and the structure of populations
• Survivorship curves
• Calculating population growth
• Exponential and geometric population growth
• Logistic population growth
• Factors affecting population fluctuation
• Population cycles
• Interspecific interactions
• Lotka-Volterra equations
• Metapopulations

• Why is biology important?

population ecology

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• University of Arkansas - Arkansas Forest Resources Center - Population Growth
• Western Oregon University - Plant Population Ecology
• McGraw-Hill Education - Ecology and Behavior
• Clemson University - The Basics of Population Dynamics
• El Camino College - Population Ecology
• University of Washington - Population Ecology
• population biology - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

population ecology , study of the processes that affect the distribution and abundance of animal and plant populations .

A population is a subset of individuals of one species that occupies a particular geographic area and, in sexually reproducing species, interbreeds. The geographic boundaries of a population are easy to establish for some species but more difficult for others. For example, plants or animals occupying islands have a geographic range defined by the perimeter of the island. In contrast, some species are dispersed across vast expanses, and the boundaries of local populations are more difficult to determine. A continuum exists from closed populations that are geographically isolated from, and lack exchange with, other populations of the same species to open populations that show varying degrees of connectedness.

Genetic variation within local populations

In sexually reproducing species, each local population contains a distinct combination of genes. As a result, a species is a collection of populations that differ genetically from one another to a greater or lesser degree. These genetic differences manifest themselves as differences among populations in morphology , physiology , behaviour, and life histories; in other words, genetic characteristics ( genotype ) affect expressed, or observed, characteristics ( phenotype ). Natural selection initially operates on an individual organismal phenotypic level, favouring or discriminating against individuals based on their expressed characteristics. The gene pool (total aggregate of genes in a population at a certain time) is affected as organisms with phenotypes that are compatible with the environment are more likely to survive for longer periods, during which time they can reproduce more often and pass on more of their genes.

The amount of genetic variation within local populations varies tremendously, and much of the discipline of conservation biology is concerned with maintaining genetic diversity within and among populations of plants and animals. Some small isolated populations of asexual species often have little genetic variation among individuals, whereas large sexual populations often have great variation. Two major factors are responsible for this variety: mode of reproduction and population size.

In sexual populations, genes are recombined in each generation, and new genotypes may result. Offspring in most sexual species inherit half their genes from their mother and half from their father, and their genetic makeup is therefore different from either parent or any other individual in the population. In both sexually and asexually reproducing species, mutations are the single most important source of genetic variation. New favourable mutations that initially appear in separate individuals can be recombined in many ways over time within a sexual population.

In contrast, the offspring of an asexual individual are genetically identical to their parent. The only source of new gene combinations in asexual populations is mutation . Asexual populations accumulate genetic variation only at the rate at which their genes mutate. Favourable mutations arising in different asexual individuals have no way of recombining and eventually appearing together in any one individual, as they do in sexual populations.

Over long periods of time, genetic variation is more easily sustained in large populations than in small populations. Through the effects of random genetic drift , a genetic trait can be lost from a small population relatively quickly ( see biosphere: Processes of evolution ). For example, many populations have two or more forms of a gene, which are called alleles . Depending on which allele an individual has inherited, a certain phenotype will be produced. If populations remain small for many generations, they may lose all but one form of each gene by chance alone.

This loss of alleles happens from sampling error . As individuals mate, they exchange genes. Imagine that initially half of the population has one form of a particular gene, and the other half of the population has another form of the gene. By chance, in a small population the exchange of genes could result in all individuals of the next generation having the same allele. The only way for this population to contain a variation of this gene again is through mutation of the gene or immigration of individuals from another population ( see evolution: Genetic variation in populations ).

Minimizing the loss of genetic variation in small populations is one of the major problems faced by conservation biologists. Environments constantly change, and natural selection continually sorts through the genetic variation found within each population, favouring those individuals with phenotypes best suited for the current environment . Natural selection, therefore, continually works to reduce genetic variation within populations, but populations risk extinction without the genetic variation that allows populations to respond evolutionarily to changes in the physical environment, diseases , predators, and competitors.

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• Ecology: Definition, Types, Importance & Examples

Population Ecology: Definition, Characteristics, Theory & Examples

Ecologists study how organisms interact with their environments on earth. Population ecology is a more specialized field of study of how and why the populations of those organisms change over time.

As the human population grows in the 21st century, the information gleaned from population ecology can assist with planning. It can also help with efforts to preserve other species.

Population Ecology Definition

In population biology , the term population refers to a group of members of a species living in the same area.

The definition of population ecology is the study of how various factors affect population growth, rates of survival and reproduction, and risk of extinction.

Characteristics of Population Ecology

Ecologists use various terms when understanding and discussing populations of organisms. A population is all of one kind of species residing in a particular location. Population size represents the total number of individuals in a habitat. Population density refers to how many individuals reside in a particular area.

Population Size is represented by the letter N, and it equals the total number of individuals in a population. The larger a population is, the greater its generic variation and therefore its potential for long-term survival. Increased population size can, however, lead to other issues, such as overuse of resources leading to a population crash.

Population Density refers to the number of individuals in a particular area. A low-density area would have more organisms spread out. High-density areas would have more individuals living closer together, leading to greater resource competition.

Population Dispersion: Yields helpful information about how species interact with each other. Researchers can learn more about populations by studying they way they are distributed or dispersed.

Population distribution describes how individuals of a species are spread out, whether they live in close proximity to each other or far apart, or clustered into groups.

• Uniform dispersion refers to organisms that live in a specific territory. One example would be penguins. Penguins live in territories, and within those territories the birds space themselves out relatively uniformly. 
• Random dispersion refers to the spread of individuals such as wind-dispersed seeds, which fall randomly after traveling.
• Clustered or clumped dispersion refers to a straight drop of seeds to the ground, rather than being carried, or to groups of animals living together, such as herds or schools. Schools of fish exhibit this manner of dispersion.

How Population Size and Density Are Calculated

Quadrat method: Ideally, population size could be determined by counting every individual in a habitat. This is highly impractical in many cases, if not impossible, so ecologists often have to extrapolate such information.

In the case of very small organisms, slow movers, plants or other non-mobile organisms, scientists scan use what is called a quadrat (not "quadrant"; note the spelling). A quadrat entails marking off same-sized squares inside a habitat. Often string and wood are used. Then, researchers can more easily count the individuals within the quadrat.

Different quadrats can be placed in different areas so that researchers get random samples. The data collected from counting the individuals in the quadrats is then used to extrapolate population size.

Mark and recapture: Obviously a quadrat would not work for animals that move a round a great deal. So to determine the population size of more mobile organisms, scientists use a method called mark and recapture .

In this scenario, individual animals are captured and then marked with a tag, band, paint or something similar. The animal is released back into its environment. Then at a later date, another set of animals is captured, and that set may include those already marked, as well as unmarked animals.

The result of capturing both marked and unmarked animals gives researchers a ratio to use, and from that, they can calculate estimated population size.

An example of this method is that of the California condor, in which individuals were captured and tagged to follow the population size of this threatened species. This method is not ideal due to various factors, so more modern methods include radio tracking of animals.

Population Ecology Theory

Thomas Malthus , who published an essay that described population’s relationship to natural resources, formed the earliest theory of population ecology . Charles Darwin expanded on this with his “survival of the fittest” concepts.

In its history, ecology relied upon the concepts of other fields of study. One scientist, Alfred James Lotka , changed the course of science when he came up with the beginnings of population ecology. Lotka sought the formation of a new field of “physical biology” in which he incorporated a systems approach to studying the relationship between organisms and their environment.

Biostatistician Raymond Pearl took note of Lotka’s work and collaborated with him to discuss predator-prey interactions.

Vito Volterra , an Italian mathematician, began analyzing predator-prey relationships in the 1920s. This would lead to what were called Lotka-Volterra equations that served as a springboard for mathematical population ecology.

Australian entomologist A.J. Nicholson led the early fields of study regarding density-dependent mortality factors. H.G. Andrewartha and L.C. Birch would go on to describe how populations are affected by abiotic factors. Lotka’s systems approach to ecology still influences the field to this day.

Population Growth Rate and Examples

Population growth reflects the change in the number of individuals over a period of time. Population growth rate is affected by birth and death rates, which in turn are related to resources in their environment or outside factors such as climate and disasters. Decreased resources will lead to a decreased population growth. Logistic growth refers to population growth when resources are limited.

When a population size encounters unlimited resources, it tends to grow very quickly. This is called exponential growth . Bacteria, for example, will grow exponentially when given access to unlimited nutrients. However, such growth cannot be sustained indefinitely.

Carrying capacity : Because the real world does not offer unlimited resources, the number of individuals in a growing population eventually will reach a point when resources become scarcer. Then the growth rate will slow and level off.

Once a population reaches this leveling-off point, it is considered the greatest population the environment can sustain. The term for this phenomenon is carrying capacity . The letter K represents carrying capacity.

Growth, birth and death rate: For human population growth, researchers have long used demography to study population changes over time. Such changes result from birth rates and death rates.

Larger populations, for example, would lead to higher birth rates just because of more potential mates. However, this can also lead to higher death rates from competition and other variables such as disease.

Populations remain stable when birth and death rates are equal. When birth rates are greater than death rates, the population increases. When death rates outpace birth rates, the population goes down. This example does not, however, take immigration and emigration into account.

Life expectancy also plays a role in demography . When individuals live longer, they also affect resources, health, and other factors.

Limiting factors : Ecologists study factors that limit population growth. This helps them understand the changes populations undergo. It also helps them predict potential futures for the populations.

Resources in the environment are examples of limiting factors. For example, plants need a certain amount of water, nutrients and sunlight in an area. Animals require food, water, shelter, access to mates and safe areas for nesting.

Density-dependent population regulation: When population ecologists discuss the growth of a population, it is through the lens of factors that are density-dependent or density-independent.

Density-dependent population regulation describes a scenario in which a population’s density affects its growth rate and mortality. Density-dependent regulation tends to be more biotic.

For example, competition within and between species for resources, diseases, predation and waste buildup all represent density-dependent factors. The density of available prey would also affect the population of predators, causing them to move or potentially starve.

Density-independent population regulation: In contrast, density-independent population regulation refers to natural (physical or chemical) factors that affect mortality rates. In other words, mortality is influenced without density being taken into account.

These factors tend to be catastrophic, such as natural disasters (e.g., wildfires and earthquakes). Pollution , however, is a manmade density-independent factor that affects many species. Climate crisis is another example.

Population cycles: Populations rise and fall in a cyclic manner depending on the resources and competition in the environment. An example would be harbor seals, affected by pollution and overfishing. Decreased prey for the seals leads to increased death of seals. If the number of births were to increase, that population size would remain stable. But if their deaths outpaced births, the population would decrease.

As climate change continues to impact natural populations, the use of population biology models becomes more important. The many facets of population ecology help scientists better understand how organisms interact, and aid in strategies for species management, conservation and protection.

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• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Alfred J. Lotka and the Origins of Theoretical Population Ecology
• University of Minnesota: Introduction to Population Ecology
• Lumen: Population Ecology

About the Author

J. Dianne Dotson is a science writer with a degree in zoology/ecology and evolutionary biology. She spent nine years working in laboratory and clinical research. A lifelong writer, Dianne is also a content manager and science fiction and fantasy novelist. Dianne features science as well as writing topics on her website, jdiannedotson.com.

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AP®︎/College Biology

Course: ap®︎/college biology   >   unit 8.

• Exponential and logistic growth in populations
• Exponential & logistic growth
• Population regulation
• Population growth rate based on birth and death rates
• Per capita population growth and exponential growth
• Logistic growth versus exponential growth

Population ecology review

• Population ecology

How many bunnies are on an island?

• How exactly is the population spread out within a given area?
• Are there many bunnies tightly packed together in one area of the island? Or are they more evenly spread out all over the island?
• How are the bunnies distributed on the island? With only one single food source, they would most likely all be densely packed at the center of the island.
• What if there were many food sources spread throughout the island? How would this change the bunny population's distribution? In this case, we would expect to see a more evenly dispersed bunny population throughout the island.

Population dynamics

Exponential growth, logistic growth, population growth regulation, density-dependent factors.

Density-independent factors

Common misconceptions.

• Students might mistakenly think that once a population reaches its carrying capacity ( K ‍   ), it no longer changes in population size. This is definitely not true in population ecology! Populations do not permanently remain at carrying capacity ( K ‍   ). Remember that ecology is a dynamic study that always involves ever-changing factors influencing populations and their growth. Most stable population sizes fluctuate around K ‍   , as opposed to remaining exactly at that value. 4 ‍  
• Students might mistakenly think population growth models can only be either exponential or logistic...this is not the case! Population growth rates aren't exclusively exponential or logistic in their growth pattern. Population growth models are on a spectrum that can range from exponential to logistic. Growth patterns often fluctuate anywhere between purely exponential and purely logistic growth.
• Students might mistakenly think that population sizes are always increasing. However, population sizes aren't always growing. Sometimes, a population might be experiencing serious enough issues that decrease the population size ( N ‍   ). A decrease in population size is caused by a negative growth rate, which can be due to a variety of factors like disease, famine, or natural disasters that lead to widespread deaths over a given time period.
• Rebounding elephant population
• Huber, H. and Laake, J. (2002). Trends and status of harbor seals in Washington state: 1978-99. In AFSC Quarterly Report , 1-13. Retrieved from http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/Quarterly/ond2002/ond02feature.pdf .
• Skalski, J. R., Ryding, K. E., and Millspaugh, J. J. (2005). Figure 7.7. Coastal estuarine harbor seal abundance in Washington state, 1975-1999. In Wildlife demography: Analysis of sex, age, and count data . Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press.
• Graph depicting K fluctuation

Additional references

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An Introduction to Population Growth

Why Study Population Growth?

Population ecology is the study of how populations — of plants, animals, and other organisms — change over time and space and interact with their environment. Populations are groups of organisms of the same species living in the same area at the same time. They are described by characteristics that include:

• population size: the number of individuals in the population
• population density: how many individuals are in a particular area
• population growth: how the size of the population is changing over time.

If population growth is just one of many population characteristics, what makes studying it so important?

First, studying how and why populations grow (or shrink!) helps scientists make better predictions about future changes in population sizes and growth rates. This is essential for answering questions in areas such as biodiversity conservation (e.g., the polar bear population is declining, but how quickly, and when will it be so small that the population is at risk for extinction?) and human population growth (e.g., how fast will the human population grow, and what does that mean for climate change, resource use, and biodiversity?).

Studying population growth also helps scientists understand what causes changes in population sizes and growth rates. For example, fisheries scientists know that some salmon populations are declining, but do not necessarily know why. Are salmon populations declining because they have been overfished by humans? Has salmon habitat disappeared? Have ocean temperatures changed causing fewer salmon to survive to maturity? Or, maybe even more likely, is it a combination of these things? If scientists do not understand what is causing the declines, it is much more difficult for them to do anything about it. And remember, learning what is probably not affecting a population can be as informative as learning what is.

Finally, studying population growth gives scientists insight into how organisms interact with each other and with their environments. This is especially meaningful when considering the potential impacts of climate change and other changes in environmental factors (how will populations respond to changing temperatures? To drought? Will one population prosper after another declines?).

Ok, studying population growth is important...where should we start?

Population Growth Basics and the American Bison

The US government, along with private landowners, began attempts to save the American bison from extinction by establishing protected herds in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The herds started small, but with plentiful resources and few predators, they grew quickly. The bison population in northern Yellowstone National Park (YNP) increased from 21 bison in 1902 to 250 in only 13 years (Figure 1, Gates et al . 2010).

The yearly increase in the northern YNP bison population between 1902 and 1915 can be described as exponential growth . A population that grows exponentially adds increasingly more individuals as the population size increases. The original adult bison mate and have calves, those calves grow into adults who have calves, and so on. This generates much faster growth than, say, adding a constant number of individuals to the population each year.

Exponential growth works by leveraging increases in population size, and does not require increases in population growth rates. The northern YNP bison herd grew at a relatively constant rate of 18% per year between 1902 and 1915 (Gates et al . 2010). This meant that the herd only added between 4 and 9 individuals in the first couple of years, but added closer to 50 individuals by 1914 when the population was larger and more individuals were reproducing. Speaking of reproduction, how often a species reproduces can affect how scientists describe population growth (see Figure 2 to learn more).

Figure 2: Bison young are born once a year — how does periodic reproduction affect how we describe population growth? The female bison in the YNP herd all have calves around the same time each year — in spring from April through the beginning of June (Jones et al. 2010) — so the population size does not increase gradually, but jumps up at calving time. This type of periodic reproduction is common in nature, and very different from animals like humans, who have babies throughout the year. When scientists want to describe the growth of populations that reproduce periodically, they use geometric growth. Geometric growth is similar to exponential growth because increases in the size of the population depend on the population size (more individuals having more offspring means faster growth!), but under geometric growth timing is important: geometric growth depends on the number of individuals in the population at the beginning of each breeding season. Exponential growth and geometric growth are similar enough that over longer periods of time, exponential growth can accurately describe changes in populations that reproduce periodically (like bison) as well as those that reproduce more constantly (like humans). Photo courtesy of Guimir via Wikimedia Commons.

The power of exponential growth is worth a closer look. If you started with a single bacterium that could double every hour, exponential growth would give you 281,474,977,000,000 bacteria in just 48 hours! The YNP bison population reached a maximum of 5000 animals in 2005 (Plumb et al . 2009), but if it had continued to grow exponentially as it did between 1902 and 1915 (18% growth rate), there would be over 1.3 billion (1,300,000,000) bison in the YNP herd today. That's more than thirteen times larger than the largest population ever thought to have roamed the entire plains region!

The potential results may seem fantastic, but exponential growth appears regularly in nature. When organisms enter novel habitats and have abundant resources, as is the case for invading agricultural pests, introduced species , or during carefully managed recoveries like the American bison, their populations often experience periods of exponential growth. In the case of introduced specie s or agricultural pests, exponential population growth can lead to dramatic environmental degradation and significant expenditures to control pest species (Figure 3).

After the Boom: Limits to Growing Out of Control

Let's think about the conditions that allowed the bison population to grow between 1902 and 1915. The total number of bison in the YNP herd could have changed because of births, deaths, immigration and emigration (immigration is individuals coming in from outside the population, emigration is individuals leaving to go elsewhere). The population was isolated, so no immigration or emigration occurred, meaning only births and deaths changed the size of the population. Because the population grew, there must have been more births than deaths, right? Right, but that is a simple way of telling a more complicated story. Births exceeded deaths in the northern YNP bison herd between 1902 and 1915, allowing the population to grow, but other factors such as the age structure of the population, characteristics of the species such as lifespan and fecundity , and favorable environmental conditions, determined how much and how fast.

Changes in the factors that once allowed a population to grow can explain why growth slows or even stops. Figure 4 shows periods of growth, as well as periods of decline, in the number of YNP bison between 1901 and 2008. Growth of the northern YNP bison herd has been limited by disease and predation, habitat loss and fragmentation, human intervention, and harsh winters (Gates et al . 2010, Plumb et al . 2009), resulting in a current population that typically falls between 2500 and 5000, well below the 1.3 billion bison that continued exponential growth could have generated.

Factors that enhance or limit population growth can be divided into two categories based on how each factor is affected by the number of individuals occupying a given area — or the population's density . As population size approaches the carrying capacity of the environment, the intensity of density-dependent factors increases. For example, competition for resources, predation, and rates of infection increase with population density and can eventually limit population size. Other factors, like pollution, seasonal weather extremes, and natural disasters — hurricanes, fires, droughts, floods, and volcanic eruptions — affect populations irrespective of their density, and can limit population growth simply by severely reducing the number of individuals in the population.

The idea that uninhibited exponential growth would eventually be limited was formalized in 1838 by mathematician Pierre-Francois Verhulst. While studying how resource availability might affect human population growth, Verhulst published an equation that limits exponential growth as the size of the population increases. Verhulst's equation is commonly referred to as the logistic equation , and was rediscovered and popularized in 1920 when Pearl and Reed used it to predict population growth in the United States. Figure 5 illustrates logistic growth: the population grows exponentially under certain conditions, as the northern YNP bison herd did between 1902 and 1915, but is limited as the population increases toward the carrying capacity of its environment. Check out the article by J. Vandermeer (2010) for a more detailed explanation of the equations that describe exponential and logistic growth.

Logistic growth is commonly observed in nature as well as in the laboratory (Figure 6), but ecologists have observed that the size of many populations fluctuates over time rather than remaining constant as logistic growth predicts. Fluctuating populations generally exhibit a period of population growth followed a period of population decline, followed by another period of population growth, followed by...you get the picture.

Populations can fluctuate because of seasonal or other regular environmental cycles (e.g., daily, lunar cycles), and will also sometimes fluctuate in response to density-dependent population growth factors. For example, Elton (1924) observed that snowshoe hare and lynx populations in Canadian boreal forests fluctuated over time in a fairly regular cycle (Figure 7). More importantly, they fluctuated, one after the other, in a predictable way: when the snowshoe hare population increased, the lynx population tended to rise (plentiful food for the lynx!); when the lynx population increased, the snowshoe hare population tended to fall (lots of predation on the hare!); when the snowshoe hare...(and the cycle continues).

It is also possible for populations to decline to extinction if changing conditions cause death rates to exceed birth rates by a large enough margin or for a long enough period of time. Native species are currently declining at unprecedented rates — one important reason why scientists study population ecology. On the other hand, as seen in the YNP bison population, if new habitats or resources are made available, a population that has been declining or relatively stable over a long period of time can experience a new phase of rapid, long-term growth.

What about Human Population Growth?

The growth of the global human population shown in Figure 8 appears exponential, but viewing population growth in different geographic regions shows that the human population is not growing the same everywhere. Some countries, particularly those in the developing world, are growing rapidly, but in other countries the human population is growing very slowly, or even contracting (Figure 9). Studying the characteristics of populations experiencing different rates of growth helps provide scientists and demographers with insight into the factors important for predicting future human population growth, but it is a complicated task: in addition to the density dependent and independent factors we discussed for the northern Yellowstone National Park bison and other organisms, human population growth is affected by cultural, economic, and social factors that determine not only how the population grows, but also the potential carrying capacity of the Earth.

biodiversity : The variety of types of organisms, habitats, and ecosystems on Earth or in a particular place.

exponential growth : Continuous increase or decrease in a population in which the rate of change is proportional to the number of individuals at any given time.

age structure : The distribution of individuals among age classes within a population.

lifespan : How long an individual lives, or how long individuals of a given species live on average .

fecundity : The rate at which an individual produces offspring.

density : Referring to a population, the number of individuals per unit area or volume; referring to a substance, the weight per unit volume.

carrying capacity : The number of individuals in a population that the resources of a habitat can support; the asymptote, or plateau, of the logistic and other sigmoid equations for population growth.

logistic equation : The mathematical expression for a particular sigmoid growth curve in which the percentage rate of increase decreases in linear fashion as the population size increases.

native species : A species that occurs in a particular region or ecosystem by natural processes, rather than by accidental or deliberate introduction by humans.

introduced species : A species that originated in a different region that becomes established in a new region, often due to deliberate or accidental release by humans.

demographers : Demography is the study of the age structure and growth rate of populations.

References and Recommended Reading

Dary, D. A. The Buffalo Book: The Full Saga of the American Animal . Chicago, IL: Swallow Press, 1989.

Elton, C. Periodic fluctuations in the numbers of animals: Their causes and effects. British Journal of Experimental Biology 2, 119-163 (1924).

Gates, C. C. et al . eds. American Bison: Status Survey and Conservation Guidelines 2010 . Gland, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2010.

Hornaday, W. T. The Extermination of the American Bison, With a Sketch of its Discovery and Life History . Annual Report 1887. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1889.

Jones, J. D. et al . Timing of parturition events in Yellowstone bison Bison bison : Implications for bison conservation and brucellosis transmission risk to cattle. Wildlife Biology 16, 333-339 (2010).

Livingston, M., Osteen, C. & Roberts, D. Regulating agricultural imports to keep out foreign pests and disease. United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Amber Waves 6, " http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/September08/Features/RegulatingAgImports.htm " (2008).

Pearl, R. & Reed, L. J. On the rate of growth of the population of the United States since 1790 and its mathematical representation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 6, 275-288 (1920).

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Vandermeer, J. How Populations Grow: The Exponential and Logistic Equations. Nature Education Knowledge 1 (2010).

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Population Ecology

• First Online: 23 March 2024

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• Vir Singh 2  

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This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of population ecology, offering valuable insights into the dynamics and interactions that shape the existence and persistence of species populations within their habitat. Population ecology is a fundamental branch of ecology that delves into the study of species populations, their characteristics, dynamics, and interactions within their habitat. A population is defined as a group of individuals of a species residing in a specific area at a given time. Population characteristics, such as size, density, dispersion patterns, age structure, natality, and mortality, provide insights into the dynamics of species assemblages. Population dynamics are influenced by four factors: natality (birth rate), immigration, mortality (death rate), and emigration. Dispersion patterns reveal the spatial arrangement of individuals within a population, with three main types: random, clumped, and regular dispersion. Age structure plays a crucial role in determining population stability and vitality, with three ecological age groups: pre-reproductive, reproductive, and post-reproductive. Age pyramids graphically represent the proportions of these age groups, reflecting the population size and growth patterns. Natality, the process of new individuals coming into existence, can be physiological or ecological, influenced by individual vigor and age. Mortality, on the other hand, represents the number of individuals dying within a population over a given period or unit of time. The population growth rate is influenced by individual fitness and environmental conditions. Organisms compete for limited resources, space, and time required for survival and successful completion of their life cycles.

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Vandermeer JH, Goldberg DE (2013) Population ecology: first principles, 2nd edn. Princeton University Press, Princeton

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Singh, V. (2024). Population Ecology. In: Textbook of Environment and Ecology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8846-4_3

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Population Ecology: An Overview

by Dr. Emily Greenfield | Jan 5, 2024 | Ecology , Environment

Population ecology is a fascinating and vital field of study in biology, focusing on how populations of organisms, particularly animals and plants, change over time and space. In this blog post, we’ll delve into population ecology’s core concepts and importance.

Table of Contents

Understanding Population Dynamics

Understanding the dynamics of populations is a key aspect of population ecology. This field examines how and why populations of a particular species change in size and composition over time. Several factors influence these dynamics, including birth, death, immigration, and emigration.

Population dynamics are not static; they frequently change in size, density, and spatial extent. For example, a population might experience growth, decline, stability, recovery, or even face extirpation (local extinction) or total extinction. Time-series graphs often represent these changes, displaying population size over the years.

Environmental factors, such as the availability of resources and competition, greatly influence these dynamics. For instance, individuals may face increased competition for limited resources as a population grows. This leads to the concept of carrying capacity – the maximum population size an environment can sustain. When the population density reaches a certain level, this can result in density-dependent regulation of the population.

Population dynamics are also shaped by interactions within and between species, such as competition, predation, and mutualism. These interspecific interactions can significantly affect population growth and stability. The Lotka-Volterra equations are often used to predict the outcomes of such species interactions on population dynamics.

Overall, population ecology offers a comprehensive understanding of how populations of organisms interact with their environment and each other and how these interactions affect their abundance and distribution over time.

The Role of the Environment

The environment is a pivotal factor in population ecology, profoundly influencing species’ survival, growth, and reproduction. Key environmental elements include the availability of resources like food and water, the presence or absence of predators, and the specific climate conditions of a habitat. For example, an environment rich in food resources can support a higher population growth due to the increased availability of energy and nutrients necessary for reproduction and survival. Conversely, scarcity of such resources often leads to a decline in population size as competition for limited resources intensifies, leading to higher mortality rates.

Predation is another critical environmental factor, where the presence of predators can regulate the population size of certain species, maintaining ecological balance . Additionally, climate conditions, such as temperature and precipitation, directly impact the livability of an environment for various species. Extreme weather conditions, long-term climatic changes, or gradual shifts in the environment can alter the distribution and size of populations, as species must either adapt, migrate, or face a decline in numbers.

Understanding these environmental influences is crucial in population ecology to predict changes in species distribution and numbers and to develop effective conservation strategies. The dynamic interplay between organisms and their environment forms the foundation of ecological balance and biodiversity.

Population Density and Distribution

Population density and distribution are pivotal concepts in population ecology. Population density is defined as the number of individuals of a species per unit area or volume. This metric is crucial for understanding a population’s ecological and social dynamics. High population density often intensifies competition for resources such as food, space, and mates. This can influence individuals’ behaviour, survival, and reproduction within a population.

On the other hand, low population density might signal problems like habitat degradation or fragmentation, indicating environmental stress or poor habitat quality. It could also mean that the species naturally prefers a solitary or dispersed way of life.

Population distribution, the pattern in which individuals are spaced within their habitat, can be clumped, uniform, or random. Clumped distribution, often the most common, occurs when resources are unevenly distributed across the landscape or because of social behaviours such as flocking and schooling. Uniform distribution is usually observed where competition for resources is intense, leading to evenly spaced individuals. Random distribution, less common in nature, occurs when environmental conditions and resources are consistent across an area, and individual interactions could be stronger.

In summary, understanding both the density and distribution of populations provides insights into environmental conditions, resource availability, and species’ social structure, which are critical for effective conservation and management strategies.

Interactions Within and Between Species

Population ecology is intrinsically linked to community ecology, highlighting the importance of interactions within a species and between different species. These interactions, predation, competition, and symbiosis, are pivotal in shaping population dynamics. For instance, predation directly affects prey population sizes and can indirectly influence other species by altering food web structures. Competition within a species (intraspecific) or between different species (interspecific) can significantly affect population distributions, leading to shifts in habitat use, feeding behaviours, and reproductive strategies.

These interspecies interactions are complex and diverse, reflecting the intricacies of ecological systems. They are essential for maintaining ecological balance, influencing species abundance, distribution, and the overall health of ecosystems. Understanding these relationships is critical for conservation efforts, as changes in one species can have cascading effects on others, potentially leading to significant shifts in ecosystem dynamics.

Human Impact and Conservation

Human activities have a profound impact on wildlife populations. Habitat destruction, pollution, overhunting, and climate change are ways humans influence population dynamics. Understanding these impacts is vital for conservation efforts. Population ecology provides essential data for creating effective conservation plans, such as identifying critical habitats, managing endangered species, and restoring ecological balance.

Also Read:   Impact Of Human Activities On Wildlife

Modelling and Predictions

Modern population ecology heavily relies on mathematical models to predict future population trends. These models consider various factors, including reproductive rates, carrying capacity, and environmental pressures. They are invaluable tools for making long-term conservation and management decisions.

Population ecology is a dynamic and crucial field offering insights into the growth of species. It helps us understand the complexities of nature and the impact of our actions on the environment. As we face growing environmental challenges, the importance of population ecology in guiding conservation efforts and policy decisions becomes ever more apparent.

This field of study is not only about numbers and theories; it’s about the real-world implications for biodiversity and the sustainability of our planet. By continuing to explore and understand the principles of population ecology, we can better appreciate and protect the intricate web of life that surrounds us.

Also Read:   Overpopulation: Planet Is Reaching Unsustainable Levels

Dr. Emily Greenfield is a highly accomplished environmentalist with over 30 years of experience in writing, reviewing, and publishing content on various environmental topics. Hailing from the United States, she has dedicated her career to raising awareness about environmental issues and promoting sustainable practices.

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9.3: Population Dynamics and Regulation

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How do populations change?

Changes in population size over time and the processes that cause these to occur are called population dynamics . How populations change in abundance over time is a major concern of population ecology , wildlife ecology , and conservation biology , and is related to questions asked in evolutionary biology . The processes and mechanisms that drive population change are varied and include intraspecific competition with members of the same population, interspecific competition between species, the availability of food or other resources, extreme weather, inbreeding, predators or parasites.

Populations are dynamic and frequently change size, density, or spatial extent

We can consider changes in populations from multiple angles. For example, Kirtland’s Warbler (S etophaga kirtlandii ) in North America is currently:

Increasing in the overall number of individuals ( population size ).

Increasing in the number of occupied habitat patches ( occupancy ).

Increasing in the geographic area it occurs in ( population distribution and  species range ).

Importantly, since the warbler prefers a certain density of Jack Pine, its density within an occupied habitat also changes. Jack Pine stands are naturally prone to burning in forest fires , and are also logged for timber. As the density of trees changes due to these disturbances, the density of warblers changes. After a fire or logging there are few if any mature pine trees and therefore few warblers.  Approximately five years after seedlings have sprouted and grown up to be the proper size, the density of warblers can increase. When pine forests get too old habitat conditions are not ideal for the warbler and their abundance declines.

Many studies of population growth focus on changes in population size

Though there are many dimensions to spatial and temporal population dynamics, discussions of population dynamics often center on changes in population size over time. Changes in population size are often displayed in a time series graph with time on the x-axis (usually in years) and population size (N) on the y-axis.  General patterns of population dynamics in terms of population size include:

Growth : Growing larger than the current size (Snail kites: Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) Panel A)

Decline : Decreasing in abundance (Elk: Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) Panel B)

Stability : Staying approximately the same size over time (Wolves: Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) Panel C)

Recovery : Stability or growth following a period of decline. (Impala: Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) Panel D). 

Extirpation (local extinction): Decline of one or more populations of a species to 0 (Kirtland's Warbler, Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) Panel A). 

Extinction : Decline of all members of a species to 0 (Northern White Rhino, Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) Panel B).

Cycles : repeated patterns of growth followed by decline (Lynx: Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) Panel C)

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\):   Common patterns of population change. The x-axis in all panels is the year and the y-axis is the number of individuals.   a) Growth in a Florida Snail Kite ( Rostrhamus sociabilis ) population from 1970s to 1980s (Sykes 1983); b) Decline of the Gallatin, Montana herd of elk ( Cervus canadensis ) from the 1920s to 1960s (Peek et al. 1967); c) Stability of the Isle Royale, Michigan pack of wolves ( Canis lupus ) in the 1980s and 1990s (Peterson et al. 1998); d) Recovery after population crashes in the Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania herd of impala (Prins and Weyerhaeuser 1987). 

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\):   Common patterns of population change.   The x-axis in all panels is the year. a) Decline to extirpation (local extinction) of Kirtland's Warbler in two populations (Probst 1986).  The y-axis is the number of singing males; b) Decline to global extinction of the Northern White Rhinoceros ( Ceratotherium simum cottoni ), one of two subspecies of White Rhinos (Smith 2001, Emslie 2012). The y-axis is the total number of rhinos in the wild. c) Repeated cycling of the Canada lynx ( Lynx canadensis ; Campbell and Walker 1977). The y-axis is the number of lynx trapped, an index of population size.  

Over the course of many years, a single population can display many of these dynamics.  For example, Kirtland's Warbler populations were monitored by determining the number of males defending territories in their summer breeding habitat in the Great Lakes region North America, primarily Michigan. There were about 500 males with territories in the 1950s (Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)). The following changes occurred over the next 50 years after the species began being protected by the Endangered Species Act (Kepler et al. 1996):

Decline over the course of the 1960s to ~200 territories.

A period of stability at ~200 territories from 1975 to 1990.

Steady growth to >2500 from 1990 through 2020.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\):   Number of singing Kirtland's Warbler ( Setophaga kirtlandii ) males, 1950 to 2020.

Models can be used to understand and predict population dynamics

Researchers who study population dynamics often use mathematical models to describe and predict population dynamics and understand what factors are driving those changes. For example, if there are 2500 Kirtland’s Warblers in Michigan this year, can we predict how many will be around next year, or 10 years from now? Due to its small population size the Kirtland’s Warbler was listed as an Endangered Species in 1967. In 2019 it was de-listed and now is considered “Near-threatened.” Ecologists are very interested in using models to predict how large the Kirtland’s Warbler population will be in the future, and what factors cause it to increase and decrease (Brown et al. 2019).  In the next chapter we will explore the conceptual and mathematical tools ecologists use to understand population dynamics and predict their future trajectories.

Biotic interactions and abiotic conditions limit the sizes of populations

Population dynamics can be regulated in a variety of ways. These are grouped into  density-dependent  factors, in which the density of the population at a given time affects growth rate and mortality, and  density-independent  factors, which influence mortality in a population regardless of population density. Note that in the former, the effect of the factor on the population depends on the density of the population at onset. Conservation biologists want to understand both types because this helps them manage populations and prevent extinction or overpopulation.

Density-Dependent Regulation

Most density-dependent factors are biological in nature (biotic), and include predation, inter- and intraspecific competition, accumulation of waste, and diseases such as those caused by parasites. Usually, the denser a population is, the greater its mortality rate. For example, during intra- and interspecific competition, the reproductive rates of the individuals will usually be lower, reducing their population’s rate of growth. In addition, low prey density increases the mortality of its predator because it has more difficulty locating its food source.

An example of density-dependent regulation is shown in Figure 9.3.4 with results from a study focusing on the giant intestinal roundworm ( Ascaris lumbricoides ), a parasite of humans and other mammals (Croll et al. 1982). Denser populations of the parasite exhibited lower fecundity: they contained fewer eggs. One possible explanation for this is that females would be smaller in more dense populations (due to limited resources) and that smaller females would have fewer eggs. This hypothesis was tested and disproved in a 2009 study which showed that female weight had no influence (Walker et al. 2009). The actual cause of the density-dependence of fecundity in this organism is still unclear and awaiting further investigation.

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\):   In this population of roundworms Ascaris lumbricoides , fecundity (number of eggs) decreases with population density (Croll et al. 1982).

Density-Independent Regulation and Interaction with Density-Dependent Factors

Many factors, typically physical or chemical in nature (abiotic), influence the mortality of a population regardless of its density, including weather, natural disasters, and pollution. An individual deer may be killed in a forest fire regardless of how many deer happen to be in that area. Its chances of survival are the same whether the population density is high or low. The same holds true for cold winter weather.

In real-life situations, population regulation is very complicated and density-dependent and independent factors can interact. A dense population that is reduced in a density-independent manner by some environmental factor(s) will be able to recover differently than a sparse population. For example, a population of deer affected by a harsh winter will recover faster if there are more deer remaining to reproduce.

Contributors and Attributions

This chapter was written by N. Brouwer with text taken from the following CC-BY resources: 

• OpenStax Biology 2e  section 45.4 Population Dynamics and Regulation

What is Population ecology?

Alexandra L.

Checked : Aakanksha M. , Grayson N.

Latest Update 22 Jan, 2024

Table of content

Population density estimation methods

Distribution by age, rate rates populations, the intrinsic rate of natural increase, distribution models, random distribution, grouped department, population regulation mechanisms.

A population is a group of individuals of the same species, occupying one specific space and which arises as part of a biotic community. A   population   has its own biological characteristics or attributes which it shares with its organism components but also has characteristics or attributes of the group, for example, birth rate, mortality, age distribution, genetic fitness, and growth. The properties of a population are density, birth rate, mortality, biotic potential, age distribution, dispersion, and r-k growth mode. The density of a population is the size of this concerning a defined spatial unit. In general, it is expressed as several individuals of the population per unit area or volume.

It is often more useful to know if a population is changing over time than it does know its abundance at any given time (e.g., number of African elephants in relation to medium-long term species conservation systems). Other indices such as those of relative abundance may be useful or the frequency of repeated events in a given unit of time. The densities of mammalian populations are a function of the trophic level and the animals' body size. The lower the trophic level, the higher the density and, at a given level, the larger the individuals, the higher the biomass (Kg/ha)

Population ecology can be defined as the study of the factors that affect the population and how living and non-living factors influence the size, density, and dispersion of a population. Moreover, it belongs to the study of the factors that why a population changes over time.

The Lincoln Index is a common capture/marking method used to estimate the population's total density in a defined area.

• The marking technique does not adversely affect animal mortality
• Animals are marked and released on the same site
• The marking technique does not affect the probability of recapturing
• The markings do not come off or lose

It is the ability of a population to grow through successive reproductions.

The birth rate equals the birth rate used for the human population. The maximum birth rate is the maximum theoretical production of new individuals in ideal conditions, considering as limits only physiological abilities. Generally, the birth rate is expressed as the ratio between the number of individuals born and the time (absolute birth rate or raw), or as newborn per unit of time per unit of population (rate of specific birth rate). Fifty protozoa become 150 in an hour, raw birth rate 100 per Now. The specific birth rate is 2 per hour per individual of the original 50.

Refers to the death of individuals who make up the population, is equivalent to the rate of deaths that are calculated in studies concerning human populations. So as with the birth rate, mortality can be calculated as the number of individual’s deaths in a given time or as a specific rate in terms of population units in whole or in part. Ecological mortality achieved (loss of individuals in one given condition), it is not constant, but as for the birth rate, it varies according to environmental conditions and with the population. There is a theoretical minimum of mortality constant for each population representing the minimum number of deaths in ideal non-limiting conditions. If the mortality rate were expressed as a fraction M, the survival rate is 1-M. If the mortality rate were expressed as fraction M, the survival rate is 1-M

The relationship between the various age groups in a population determines its reproductive state and makes considerations about its future. According to numerous opinions, the populations with which they would have a "normal" or stable age distribution tend real distributions. Once you reach age stability, normal increases in birthrate or mortality result in temporary changes, with spontaneous returns to normal.

It is, therefore, possible to recognize three ecological ages:

• Pre-reproductive
• Reproductive
• Post-reproductive

A high young-adult ratio indicates that there will be a high future birth rate and a probable increase in individuals in the following season.

It is realities in constant change, in constant change, density, birth rate, survival, age structure, and growth rate are all DYNAMIC parameters. The study of the change in the number of individuals of one population and the factors that justify the changes is called DYNAMICS OF A POPULATION. So what does it affect overtime? The rate you can obtain by dividing the change by a certain amount by the period of time during which the change occurred. You will find that "change" 'abbreviated to ecological formulations as Delta.

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If we were to consider a non-limiting environment, the specific growth rate would be constant and maximum in favorable climatic conditions. It becomes an index of the intrinsic capacity of growth of that given favorable population conditions and characteristics of that particular age distribution. It is indicated by the letter r, which is the exponent of the differential equation, which expresses the growth of a population in a non-limiting environment.

d / n / d / t = rate of variation in the number of individuals concerning time in a certain instant.

BIOTIC POTENTIAL is the maximum reproductive potential of a population, the intrinsic properties of organisms to reproduce and survive in order to increase their own number. This can lend itself to different interpretations, i.e., reproductive potential, seed production potential, etc.

Populations can be distributed over a territory following three distribution schemes of base:

The environment must be theoretically uniform and must not be present tendencies to aggregation

It is the most common form, but if individuals tend to form flocks ad example, here we can talk about random group distribution or regular grouped.

In low diversity ecosystems affected by significant physical stress or to those populations subject to irregular or unpredictable extrinsic disturbances, they tend to be regulated by physical factors such as climate, water currents, or physical factors as, e.g., pollution. In highly diverse environments, in favorable environments (few periodic physical stresses, e.g., fire floods, etc.), populations tend to be biologically regulated and, at least in part, they have a self-regulated density. Any limiting or favorable factor that can be placed in two large groups is based on the relationship with the population with which it acts.

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The Effect of Population Growth on the Environment: Evidence from European Regions

Hannes weber.

1 Department of Sociology, University of Mannheim, A5, 6, 68159 Mannheim, Germany

Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba

2 Department of International Studies, Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112 USA

There is a long-standing dispute on the extent to which population growth causes environmental degradation. Most studies on this link have so far analyzed cross-country data, finding contradictory results. However, these country-level analyses suffer from the high level of dissimilarity between world regions and strong collinearity of population growth, income, and other factors. We argue that regional-level analyses can provide more robust evidence, isolating the population effect from national particularities such as policies or culture. We compile a dataset of 1062 regions within 22 European countries and analyze the effect from population growth on carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and urban land use change between 1990 and 2006. Data are analyzed using panel regressions, spatial econometric models, and propensity score matching where regions with high population growth are matched to otherwise highly similar regions exhibiting significantly less growth. We find a considerable effect from regional population growth on carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and urban land use increase in Western Europe. By contrast, in the new member states in the East, other factors appear more important.

Introduction

Somewhere around 1990, the mood in Europe turned against limiting population growth. By the turn of the millennium, the dominant narrative had shifted from worries over “too many people” to worries over “too few people,” highlighting the global divergence between negative European population trends and those of less developed states still experiencing significant growth. In 1983, a majority of 52% of Italians considered the recent dramatic drop in the total fertility rate to 1.4 children per women in their country to be “a good thing” (Palomba et al. 1998 ). Only 15% thought the Italian population should increase, while a large majority preferred either a decreasing (29%) or a stationary population (52%) (see ibid.). By 1995, this picture had changed considerably. According to Eurobarometer survey data, 40% of Italians now wanted their nation to grow, with less than 20% supporting a population decline (European Commission 1995 ). In the year 2000, according to the second wave of the “Population Policy Acceptance Study,” only 8% of the respondents in 12 European countries preferred their respective populations to decrease, compared to 49% who favored an increase (Höhn et al. 2008 ). Rapid and intense population aging—and in many cases, shrinking—is partly responsible for this shift in European viewpoints on optimal population trends. Viewed in the context of Europe’s environmental plans, however, desires for population increase might contradict those states’ ambitious climate goals.

Primarily because of concerns over economic strains, the EU is scrambling to institute policies that soften the economic effects of population aging and decline on the size of the workforce (European Commission 2015 ). Yet, by 2020 the EU aims to reduce CO 2 emissions by 20% and achieve no new net urban land by 2050 (European Commission 2011 ). Can these population and environmental goals exist side by side? Has fear of “overpopulation” damaging the environment rightly been dismissed in Europe? To answer these questions we estimate the effect of population growth on two dimensions of environmental degradation in Europe, greenhouse gas (CO 2 ) emissions and urban land use, for 1062 European NUTS-3 regions. 1 We analyze CO 2 emissions and urban growth as outcomes in this paper since these factors are recognized as drivers of adverse climate change by both environmental research and EU policies. CO 2 emissions directly affect world climate, while urban growth can have (among other consequences) an additional effect on air pollution and carbon stock in soil and vegetation by soil sealing and increased vehicular traffic (see, e.g., De Ridder et al. 2008 ; Schulp et al. 2008 ).

Our results demonstrate that net population growth in Europe will undermine ambitious climate goals. While some cities and regions have been able to experience high or medium population growth and still reduce emissions, particularly in Western Europe, many regions have not. Reducing emissions of a growing population requires significant planning and investment. Contemporary population policies within EU member states are usually concerned with stimulating growth. Possible benefits for the environment accompanying low or negative population growth are rarely discussed in official documents (see, e.g., European Commission 2014 ).

In the European Union, fertility rates have been at or below replacement level for two or more decades in most countries and projections by the United Nations and others routinely expect Europe to shrink—the UN ( 2015 ) estimates Europe to lose 32,000 people by 2050. By contrast, Bijak et al. ( 2007 ) project the EU-27’s population to remain constant by 2052 in their “base” scenario, while higher immigration rates could lead to an increase to 563 million people by mid-century, up from 504 million in 2015 and 482 million in 2000. Migration is incredibly difficult to predict, but we do know that migrants will conform to the general consumption behavior of where they move to, rather than retaining consumption patterns from where they came. And if we consider density instead of just total population, “depopulation” is not imminent for the EU. After all, with around 116 people per km 2 , the EU’s population density is more than twice the world’s average and by far greater than the USA’s (35/km 2 ), Africa’s (36/km 2 ) and also Asia’s (87/km 2 ). Despite a lower per capita consumption of natural resources than the USA, Canada, or Australia, densely populated European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, or Germany have a high ecological footprint, i.e., they consume a multitude of renewable resources compared to what their lands produce (Wackernagel and Rees 1996 ).

Theoretical Accounts on the Population–Environment Link

The relation between population and environmental degradation is often considered straightforward: More people should have a greater impact on the environment, if all other factors (such as per capita consumption) remain unchanged. As Laurie Mazur ( 2012 , p. 2) writes, “if we increase by 30% by 2050, we must swiftly reduce our collective impact by a third just to maintain the disastrous status quo.” The formal expression of this idea is the famous IPAT decomposition (Holdren and Ehrlich 1974 ), where humans’ environmental impact ( I ) is conceived to be a product of population size ( P ), per capita affluence ( A ), and technology ( T ) per unit of affluence. IPAT is still frequently referred to in the scientific debate, in particular by critics of population–environment (P–E) studies (e.g., Angus and Butler 2011 ). However, researchers in this field have long acknowledged the limits of IPAT for empirical research. In many applications, T is simply a ratio of I and A , and thus, the relative impact of population growth cannot be empirically assessed (see, e.g., York et al. 2003 ). In addition, in its simplest form, IPAT neglects possible interactions between the right-hand side variables.

Problems with IPAT are less acute in its stochastic version known as STIRPAT (Dietz and Rosa 1997 ) which allows for over- or underproportional weights of the factors in the equation determined by empirical data. Unobserved variables or interactions lead to a large error term which informs the researcher that the model only partly captures what is going on in the real world. There are many mechanisms of environmental degradation that do not involve population size or growth (see, e.g., de Sherbinin et al. 2007 for an overview). In the following, we review theoretical arguments on the link between population and the two outcomes of interest in this paper: urban land use change and CO 2 emissions.

With regard to urban growth, Lambin et al. ( 2003 , p. 224) list five “high-level causes” of land use change, only one of which specifically involves population growth. The other causal pathways focus on, among other factors, changing economic opportunities, policy interventions, and cultural change. In recent decades, cities such as Liverpool (the UK) or Leipzig (Germany) have experienced urban sprawl during periods of population decline (Couch et al. 2005 ). Many mechanisms driving urbanization of previously undeveloped land exist in the absence of population growth: Investors seek to build out-of-center retail facilities on cheaper building sites, and many families prefer detached houses in the “green” periphery (ibid.). This is particularly the case if income levels rise and households can afford larger homes (Patacchini et al. 2009 ). Commuting costs and public transport infrastructure in and around cities are also obvious determinants of how and where urban growth occurs (ibid.). Historical trajectories, local policies, and cultural preferences affect how compact or dispersed residential areas are built. For instance, European cities such as Barcelona are often contrasted against North American cities with a comparable population size, but a much larger urban area (e.g., Catalán et al. 2008 ). As an example of a more complex mechanism, urban growth into formerly suburban or rural areas can depend on whether socially deprived areas with high crime rates are more prominent in city centers (as is typical for North America) or in suburbs (as in many European cities, see Patacchini et al. 2009 ). Nevertheless, urban growth should ceteris paribus be stronger in the case of rapid population growth as compared with a stagnant population scenario. More people lead to a greater demand for accommodations and traffic—the question is whether this direct effect is empirically suppressed by other mechanisms as outlined above. Research mostly finds that population growth fosters urban land cover change, but there are geographical differences. In their meta-analysis, Seto et al. ( 2011 ) find that urban land expansion in India and Africa is mainly driven by population growth, while in China, North America, and Europe the main factor is GDP growth.

With regard to CO 2 emissions, there are also conflicting expectations in the literature. In general, few seem to doubt that a causal effect from human activity on the level of CO 2 emissions exists, mostly as a result of fossil energy combustion for purposes such as residential heating or transportation (e.g., de Sherbinin et al. 2007 ). Even though there are considerable differences in per capita consumption of energy, more humans ceteris paribus emit more CO 2 . As O’Neill et al. ( 2012 , p. 159) emphasize, if all other determinants of emissions and all relevant causal pathways are accounted for in a statistical model, “population can only act as a scale factor and its elasticity should therefore be 1.” However, the indirect effect of population growth via interactions and feedbacks with other variables remains often unclear. For instance, Simon ( 1993 , 1994 ) famously assumed that while population growth might create shortages of resources, rising prices for goods made with those resources will motivate technological innovations (which are more likely to occur in large populations) and therefore, in the long run, “more people equals (…) a healthier environment” (Simon 1994 , p. 22). Similar to the view put forward by Boserup ( 1965 ), technology is seen as endogenous to population growth (and positively affected by it). On the other hand, recent research suggests that more efficient technologies are paradoxically accompanied by an increase in energy consumption and thus emissions rise despite technological progress (York and McGee 2016 ). Empirically, most research finds that population growth is positively associated with CO 2 emissions increase (Bongaarts 1992 ; MacKellar et al. 1995 ; Dietz and Rosa 1997 ; Shi 2003 ; York et al. 2003 ; O’Neill et al. 2012 ; Liddle 2013 ). Against this body of research, critics point out that the bivariate correlation between population growth and emissions growth on the level of countries is zero or even negative (Satterthwaite 2009 ): Many countries marked by rapid population growth have low levels and low growth rates in emissions, and vice versa. This perspective suggests that differences in consumption levels caused by economic inequality, rather than population size or growth, are responsible for CO 2 emissions increase.

The biggest theoretical challenges to P–E research arguably lie in the insufficient knowledge about interactions and feedbacks between population, environment, and other factors. Most notably, population growth can interact with affluence. It is well established that fertility rates vary with factors such as socioeconomic modernity (e.g., Lutz and Qiang 2002 ), especially education (Schultz 1993 ), and human capital (Becker et al. 1990 ). According to the theory of demographic transition (Caldwell 1976 ; Dyson 2010 ), lower infant and child mortality rates (offset by higher affluence levels) are the primary cause of fertility decline (because humans have fewer children if they can expect more of them to survive). Due to a delay between the onsets of mortality and fertility decline, a population grows rapidly for a certain period and then stabilizes at a higher level. After fertility levels have dropped, a country can enjoy the “demographic dividend” (Bloom et al. 2003 ), as many young adults enter the workforce, but have fewer children to take care of. This change in age structure can also be accompanied by changing aspirations and preferences for accommodation (e.g., larger living space) and consumption, as has happened, for instance, in China in recent decades (Zhu and Peng 2012 ). Thus, in terms of IPAT, a decrease in P (or delta P) can cause an increase in A (and vice versa) and therefore halting population growth could possibly result in more environmental degradation rather than less.

In sum, most scholars agree that population size and growth have a direct effect on urban land cover and CO 2 emissions if all other factors are held constant. However, some authors argue that indirect effects—e.g., interactions and feedback processes with income or technology—typically compensate or even reverse the direct effect from population over time. We cannot solve this controversy in this paper. Instead, our research objective is to assess the total effect (i.e., direct and indirect effects) from population growth on the environment in Europe. The goal is to come to reasonable assumptions about what would happen if Europe’s population grew more or less rapidly. As described above, we use two operationalizations for environmental degradation: urban land use growth and CO 2 emissions.

Methodological Issues and Research Design

Contemporary P–E studies typically follow one of three types of approaches. The first approach focuses on an in-depth understanding of the causal pathway from P to E, including interactions and feedback with other factors. This approach often involves qualitative research, e.g., in the form of case studies of a particular country or region (e.g., Lutz et al. 2002 ; Gorrenflo et al. 2011 ). These studies can provide valuable insight for quantitative research with regard to how to model these direct and indirect effects. Yet, it is often difficult to generalize these qualitative findings on how population, policies, culture, and the economy interact in a specific setting to other countries or regions. The second approach quantitatively analyzes large (mostly cross-country) datasets with various statistical methods (for recent reviews see Hummel et al. 2013 ; Liddle 2014 ). These include linear regressions (Shi 2003 ; York et al. 2003 ) or more advanced econometric techniques for the analysis of panel data (Liddle 2013 ). They seek to attain generalizable knowledge of how P and E are usually correlated. Yet, different model specifications (with regard to how to deal with endogeneity or interaction effects) have produced different results in the past. Finally, a third approach uses simulations to arrive at different scenarios and predictions for future trends under varying assumptions. Simulations can either be done with macro-level models (e.g., Bongaarts 1992 ; O’Neill et al. 2010 ) or with bottom-up agent-based simulations, where household decisions, policy reactions, and feedback processes are modeled to study the emergent macro-level outcome (e.g., An et al. 2005 ). The validity of these predictions depends on how well the set of assumptions calibrating the simulations reflects reality, and they are commonly critiqued for excluding relevant variables and oversimplifying with regard to indirect effects and interactions. For instance, O’Neill et al. ( 2010 ) do not explicitly model any feedback effects from affluence or environment on population growth, which is why Angus and Butler ( 2011 ) refer to their models as “Malthus in, Malthus out.”

One of the biggest methodological problems in global cross-country research is the high level of collinearity usually found for many socioeconomic, political, and other variables (Schrodt 2014 ). Many comparative studies in P–E research suffer from the dissimilarity of the observed cases with regard to nearly anything that might affect population, environment, or both. For instance, emission levels have increased considerably in developed countries such as France over the past century, whereas this increase has been only modest in developing countries such as Ethiopia. The opposite is true for population growth. Thus, the observed correlation between population growth and emissions change is negative, as pointed out by Satterthwaite ( 2009 ) and others. However, this can hardly lead to the conclusion that France’s low population growth was causally responsible for the increase in emissions and a much higher population growth rate would have benefitted the environment. This is because France and Ethiopia also differ with regard to previous levels of population density and state of the environment as well as many other economic, technological, and other factors. A better approach could be to match France to a similar country that has experienced notably higher (or lower) rates of population growth and compare emission levels between the two countries. This could certainly provide a better foundation for a counterfactual scenario to determine what would happen if France’s population grew more or less rapidly. There might just not be many countries that meet the requirements for such a design to provide us with a sample sufficiently large to conduct quantitative analyses.

We argue that a good way to find appropriate cases is to examine the sub-national level (as in, e.g., Cramer 2002 ). Regions within one country are affected by the same national policies and are usually highly similar with regard to many potentially relevant factors such as climate, culture, or technological standards. For instance, Siedentop and Fina ( 2012 ) find that country-specific drivers of urban land use are important beyond demographic and economic variables; this distinction cannot be made in global country-level analyses. We avoid a large number of potential fallacies if we compare population growth and environmental trends in two French regions as opposed to comparing France to Ethiopia.

It might seem counterintuitive to select contemporary Europe as the location to examine the effects of population growth. As is well known, Europe is the world region with by far the lowest growth rate. Empirical studies usually find a much stronger detrimental population effect on the environment on other continents (e.g., Seto et al. 2011 ; Liddle 2013 ). However, net population growth—whether through natural increase or migration—in higher-income European areas potentially has greater detrimental effects on the environment than does growth in a lower-income area because the average European inhabitant has such high consumption. Additionally, from a methodological perspective, European regions provide a good sample to study the effect of population change on greenhouse gas emissions and urban land use because population is growing in some European regions, while in others is stationary or declining. Europe also includes considerable variation with regard to changes in emissions and land use. At the same time, the broader demographic, socioeconomic, and political context is held constant to some extent—our sample includes only upper-middle-income countries so we can move beyond emphasis on consumption patterns that dominate discussions of population and environment at the global level, and can isolate population growth to see if it is still a relevant issue for environmental discussions in developed states. By contrast, previous studies have often compared countries at various stages of the demographic transition that are embedded in different socioeconomic and political contexts. This wide sample poses some serious methodological issues as well as a risk of misinterpreting the data. By analyzing sub-national regions, we can also achieve greater statistical power through a larger sample size.

All European countries have already completed the demographic transition, and fertility rates are at or below replacement level. Variation in population growth is therefore not rooted in different levels of human development or broad cultural values, factors that could also affect the environment. Even differences in fertility rates between urban and rural regions, which were prominent until the mid-twentieth century, have almost disappeared. For instance, in 1960, the total fertility rate (TFR) in Switzerland was below 2 in urban areas such as Geneva compared with 3.5 or more children per woman in several rural cantons; today in all cantons the TFR falls somewhere between 1.2 and 1.7 (Basten et al. 2012 ). Population growth in Europe today mainly depends on internal and external migration. Net migration into a region partly varies with economic factors, such as employment opportunities, as in, say, south–north movements within Italy. On the other hand, international migration, especially, is path dependent and networks often lead to spatial variation in inflows long after the original cause of the first migration wave is gone (see, e.g., Mayda 2010 ). Consider, for instance, that many immigrants in Europe came as workers in the 1960s and 1970s and clustered into industrial areas. Later, new immigrants continued to prefer these cities over other destinations because family members or other co-ethnics already live there, despite the decline in the heavy industry in cities such as Lille (France), Duisburg (Germany), or Malmö (Sweden), where employment or income levels are similar or even worse compared with other regions hosting fewer immigrants. It also seems reasonable to assume that migrants do not target specific cities or regions primarily due to their environmental quality. Thus, we can argue that population growth in European regions is at least partly exogenous to the other variables in the equation and therefore issues of endogeneity or unobserved interactions should be much smaller compared with global cross-country analyses.

Data and Statistical Models

Our dataset encompasses 1062 NUTS-3 regions within 22 countries where data were available for our main variables of interest. 2 All countries are EU member states. We analyze changes between two time points with regard to urban growth and CO 2 emissions. Data for urban growth come from the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) project, a satellite-based classification of land surface by the European Environmental Agency ( 2007 ), distributed by the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON 2012 ). We use the first and the third releases of CLC with reference years 1990 and 2006, respectively, and calculate the change in the proportion of land in a NUTS-3 region that is classified as “artificial surfaces” (CLC-1), i.e., urban fabric, industrial areas, transport, etc., between these years. For greenhouse gas emissions we use data from the Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), aggregated for European NUTS regions as part of the “Greener Economy” project by ESPON ( 2014 ). The dataset contains estimates for total CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion (excluding emissions from organic carbon, large-scale biomass burning, aviation, and shipping, as these cannot be directly attributed to human activity within the region) for the years 2000 and 2008. Average annual population growth within the same time period is calculated using data from Eurostat ( 2015a ). 3 We include regional data for per capita GDP and GDP growth (from Eurostat 2015b ) in our models. A list of all variables with descriptive statistics is given in “ Appendix .”

How are trends in population growth, emissions, and urban land use connected to one another? In a first step, we use the total sample of regions. We specify a dynamic model where changes in environmental impact Δ y i (representing either urban land use or CO 2 emissions) in region i = 1, …, N are regressed on their level at the time of the previous observation ( y i , t - 1 ). 4 Using changes rather than levels in the dependent variable reduces the problem of non-stationarity that likely exists when analyzing time-series data of autoregressive phenomena such as land use cover. This is relevant because non-stationary processes imply the risk of finding spurious correlations (Granger and Newbold 1974 ). In addition, the lagged dependent variable (LDV) y i , t - 1 captures the unobserved time-constant causes that led to differences between regions in the first place and also controls for a “Matthew effect.” (Urban land cover change occurs more often in areas that are already highly urbanized.) Note that observations are not yearly, but refer to first and last years of the observed period (thus T = 2) due to data availability. For both population ( p ) and per capita GDP ( a ), we include lagged level as well as change over the observed time period. Total population and per capita GDP are log-transformed to account for skewed distributions. A squared term of GDP to test for an environmental Kuznets curve (see, e.g., Carson 2010 ) was tested, but dropped from the final models since there was no evidence for such a pattern in Europe. As an additional control, we include a dummy for coastal location ( c ) of a region. The regression parameters are denoted by β 0 to β 6 , while ε i is the regional-level error term. Model 1 reports an ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation based on the following equation:

In a second model, we consider spatial autocorrelation: Regions are likely influenced by neighboring areas because of, e.g., commuter networks between regions, leading to a correlation in error terms among nearby regions. For instance, we can expect a rural region close to a city to develop differently in terms of urban land change and CO 2 emissions compared to an otherwise similar but remote rural region. These expectations are in line with previous research showing that, e.g., urban expansion is affected by surrounding land use (Huang et al. 2009 ). In our data, a test for spatial autocorrelation reveals significant amounts of spatial interdependence: Moran’s I is .31 for urban land use change and .46 for CO 2 emissions change in our sample. Neighboring regions are defined by contiguity here, and a binary weight matrix is applied, where the value is 1 if regions are contiguous and 0 otherwise. We estimate a spatial lag model (see Ward and Gleditsch 2008 ; LeSage and Pace 2009 ), where a spatially lagged dependent variable is added to the model. In Eq. ( 2 ), the term W y denotes the spatially lagged dependent variable together with weight matrix W .

As a robustness test, we also use a distance-based concept of neighborhood since this might better capture some drivers of spatial dependence in our dependent variables (such as commuting flows). In addition to the spatial lag model, we also estimate a spatial error model and a spatial lag model where the independent variables are lagged as well. These models can be found in “ Appendix .”

Next, we add a country-specific error term α j which is allowed to correlate with the other predictors (equivalent to a set of M-1 dummy variables for country j = 1, …, M ). 5 These country fixed effects control for unobserved country-specific influences such as national environmental policies. The equation for Model 3 can accordingly be written as:

Since regions in formerly communist Central-Eastern European countries may be more similar to each other than to Western European regions, we run the same analysis as in Model 3 separately in subsamples of only Western (Model 4) and only Eastern (Model 5) regions. We used base R for OLS regressions (R Core Team 2013 ) and the spdep package (Bivand and Piras 2015 ) for spatial models.

Finally, we preprocess the data using different matching algorithms (see, e.g., Ho et al. 2007 ). The idea is that for every region with high population growth, we find a region with a considerably lower growth rate, but otherwise highly similar characteristics. This type of “most similar case” design results in a more balanced sample and arguably gets us as close to identifying the population growth effect as it can get with this quasi-experimental study design. Around 10% of all regions ( N = 96) in the sample have experienced population growth rates of 1% or more per year on average during the study period. These regions represent the “treatment” group. As reported below, this “treatment” is only weakly correlated with other predictor variables in the data and therefore issues of endogeneity appear to be of low salience. The control group consists of regions with less than 0.5% growth per year ( N = 815). This cutoff value is chosen arbitrarily, though the results do not change significantly if we use a somewhat different threshold. We perform one-to-one nearest neighbor matching with a propensity score matching algorithm (Ho et al. 2007 ). 6

The result leaves us with a sample of 96 high-growth and 96 most similar low-growth regions. We then compare the distributions of urban growth and change in CO 2 emissions between “treatment” and control cases. To deal with missing values we used multiple imputation, creating ten multiply imputed datasets with Amelia II software (Honaker et al. 2011 ). Matching and model estimation are performed in each of the datasets, and the results are averaged with Rubin’s ( 1987 ) rules. (Note that 1029 out of 1062 cases have complete information, so missingness is not a major issue in our data.) An acceptable balance between the distributions of the variables in the two groups can be achieved with the algorithm. In the matched dataset for urban growth, both the high and the low population growth groups consist of predominantly Western European regions (93 vs. 91%), around half of them with a coastline (compared with 22% in the total sample). Per capita GDP averages at 27,500 Euros in the treatment group and 27,300 Euros in the control group (compared with 23,000 Euros in the total sample). Mean GDP growth rates are 4.0% over the observed period of time in both groups; only in terms of initial population size (652,000 vs. 548,000) the average values differ somewhat. For CO 2 emissions, balance is equally acceptable. Initial level of emissions (4400 tons vs. 4200 tons), per capita GDP (27,500 Euros vs. 27,600 Euros), GDP growth (4.0 vs. 4.1%), coastal location (49 vs. 52%), and location in Western Europe (93 vs. 91%) are very similar among the high and the low population growth groups. Again, initial population size (652,000 vs. 571,000) slightly differs. Some examples from the match tables: Madrid, Spain (high population growth), was matched with Rome, Italy (low population growth). The Irish South-East (high growth) was paired with South Jylland, Denmark (low growth). Dutch city of Utrecht (high growth) was matched with Salzburg, Austria (low growth), while the fast-growing Algarve in southern Portugal was paired with French department of Yvelines, where population growth was low.

Figures  1 , ​ ,2, 2 , and ​ and3 3 show the regional variation in population growth, CO 2 emissions, and urban land use between the regions in our dataset. Population growth was highest in Spain and Ireland in the 2000s, as these two countries witnessed the largest increase in their immigrant populations (in percentage points), followed by Italy (see Fig.  1 ). For Germany and France, the 2000s was a decade of low net immigration, but France’s major urban agglomerations still increased. Many Central-Eastern European countries had a net population loss, although not all regions; several populations in metro areas around cities such as Budapest, Prague, or Poznan increased. Urban growth, as Fig.  2 shows, is clearly related to the level of urbanization that was already present in a region. Artificial land use increased strongest in the already highly densely populated regions in the Netherlands and West Germany, along the Spanish, Portuguese, and French coastlines and in their respective capital regions, around the Irish and Danish capitals, in the tourist hotspots of Tyrol and in the industrial centers of northern Italy and Polish Silesia and capital region. The amount of soil sealing (destruction of soil due to urbanization construction, such as buildings) of farmland, pasture, or forests was rather low in many rural regions, in the Baltics and Balkans, or in inland France and Spain, apart from their capitals. There are observable differences in CO 2 emissions between countries and regions, too (see Fig.  3 ). Emissions grew strongly in the Baltic countries and in many parts of Ireland, Spain, and Bulgaria. By contrast, Denmark, Germany, and the Czech Republic largely reduced the emission of CO 2 .

Population growth in 20 European countries, 2000–2008, average annual rate

Urban land use change in 20 European countries, 1990–2006

CO2 emissions change in 19 European countries, 2000–2008

Tables  1 and ​ and2 2 show the regression results using the full dataset with urban land change (Table  1 ) and CO 2 emissions change (Table  2 ) as the respective dependent variables. Table  1 confirms that population growth is positively correlated with urban growth. This effect holds when spatial autocorrelation (Model 2) and country-level fixed effects (Model 3) are taken into account, while the effect of GDP vanishes. When East and West are differentiated, a fairly strong positive effect for population growth is shown to exist in the West, while this effect is insignificant in the East. By contrast, urban growth is strongly determined by regional per capita GDP in the formerly communist countries, while affluence has no impact in the West.

Table 1

Predictors of urban growth as a percentage of total land use (logit-transformed) in 1062 European NUTS-3 regions between 1990 and 2006, all regions and by location in Eastern or Western Europe

Cells show unstandardized coefficients with standard errors in parentheses. * p  < .05 ** p  < .01 *** p  < .001

Table 2

Predictors of change in CO 2 emissions (in kilotons) in 1033 European NUTS-3 regions between 2000 and 2008, all regions and by location in Eastern or Western Europe

The pattern is similar for CO 2 emissions (see Table  2 ). One additional percentage point of annual population growth is associated with 2.5 additional kilotons CO 2 emitted between 2000 and 2008 in Western Europe. In the East, however, there is no significant correlation between population and emissions change. Rather, the interesting finding here is that the lagged value of CO 2 emissions is negatively related to its increase. This finding means emissions grow stronger in Eastern regions where the level has previously been low, indicating that these regions seem to “catch up” in terms of CO 2 emissions. These emissions are not related to economic activity, however, since the coefficient for GDP growth is negative in all models where country-specific differences are controlled for.

Our data lend some support for the argument that population growth in European regions is partly exogenous to other variables in question, where on the level of Western European regions, population growth between 2000 and 2008 is only weakly correlated with per capita GDP in 2000 ( r = .10) and even negatively with GDP growth ( r = − .19) for the observed period. Note, however, that in Eastern Europe, the correlation between regional per capita GDP in 2000 and population growth between 2000 and 2008 is considerably stronger ( r = .41) than in the West (while for GDP growth, the coefficient is also weak and negative (− .18)). This might indicate that in Eastern Europe, population growth is endogenous to wealth to some extent, probably as a result of intra-national (e.g., rural–urban) migration, as international migration only played a minor role in most Eastern countries during the period under study.

It is also instructive to compare the effect of per capita GDP between models with (Model 3) and without (Models 1 and 2) country-specific errors in Table  2 . Judging from Model 1, we would assume a strong negative relationship between GDP and CO 2 emissions in Europe. This could be interpreted as showing that European regions are beyond the turning point on an environmental Kuznets curve, and the higher the affluence, the cleaner the regions with regard to emissions. These differences can entirely be attributed to the country level, however, and disappear once the country level is included. Thus, it seems as if the more affluent countries have made greater efforts to reduce emissions, but within countries there is no such relationship. These differences point to a possible interaction between socioeconomic prosperity and country-level policies, while dismissing a direct negative effect from affluence on emissions. A research design restricted to cross-country comparison likely fails to differentiate the effects of this sort.

Finally, results from the preprocessed sample using propensity score matching are shown in Figs.  4 and ​ and5. 5 . Figure  4 displays differences in urban land take between regions with high population growth compared with a control group of otherwise most similar regions but where population growth was small or zero. Again, high population growth regions show a significantly larger increase in urban fabric compared with regions of similar size, affluence, and income growth, but with lower population growth. Urban land use increased at a mean rate which was more than twice as high in the high population growth regions compared with the control group. With regard to CO 2 emissions, the differences are similarly large (see Fig.  5 ). While regions with low to medium population growth have on average kept their level between 2000 and 2008, similar regions with higher population growth increased emissions by more than 10%. The significant population effect remains if we run multivariate models on this reduced sample where the other covariates are taken into account.

Urban land use change in European regions with high population growth and matched control group with low growth (red mark = mean).

Note Thick black lines denote the median, box limits are 25th and 75th percentile, respectively, red marks are mean values, and jitter points are regions ( N = 96 in high population growth group and N = 96 in control group). (Color figure online)

CO2 emissions change in European regions with high population growth and matched control group with low growth (red mark = mean).

So how are some European regions with high population growth able to achieve low CO 2 emissions? The city of Brussels, which put ambitious climate policies in place in 2004, provides one such example. The city set a specific target to reduce CO 2 emissions by 40% per capita by 2025, partly through high energy and air quality standards. Although population is growing, the city aims to improve air quality by encouraging public transportation and reducing car traffic by 20% from 2001 to 2018 (European Union 2016 ).

East Jylland provides another example. East Jylland forms the eastern portion of the continental portion of Denmark, north of Germany. The largest city in East Jylland is Arhus, which is considered the economic, trading, and cultural hub of both Jylland and Denmark (outside of Copenhagen). In 2008 and 2009, Arhus was named one of the six “Eco Cities” by the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy—a scheme “developed in order to acknowledge cutting-edge cities and to inspire other local authorities to make increased efforts in the field of climate and energy” (Rasmussen and Christensen 2010 , p. 217). As a “cutting-edge” city in developing clean energy alternatives and fighting global warming, local officials in Arhus in 2007 committed the city to being CO 2 neutral by 2030 (ibid.). Arhus was also the first city to monitor and map its CO 2 emissions and to develop a “CO 2 calculator,” which is now used across Europe. The city’s current eco plan “consists of several generations of climate plans reaching towards 2030” (City of Aarhus 2016 ). The primary legs of these plans consist of: developing an extensive and efficient light rail, committing public funds to increasing the size of local forests and wetlands, improving biking accessibility and safety, improving the municipality’s heating system (which is derived from the local incineration plant), planning and implementing flood prevention plans, increasing public knowledge of and funding for housing energy efficiency, and finally, increasing public knowledge and public–private partnerships. In direct public spending on these goals, local authorities have committed over 72 million Euros. However, the actual sum is much larger when you take into account government subsidies for energy efficiency improvements, investments in current energy infrastructure, and public–private partnerships. These investments are paying off. For example, improvements to the city’s incinerator/zero-carbon energy producer have decreased CO 2 output by 60,000 tons per year, while investments into reforestation will begin absorbing nearly 14 tons of CO 2 annually (City of Aarhus 2016 ).

Hamburg, in northern Germany, is a case of low population growth and low emissions. With around 1.7 million inhabitants, Hamburg is one of the European Union’s largest cities and its population grew at a modest 0.48% per annum during the study period. The city won the European Union’s award for “Europe’s Green Capital” in 2011. Rather than expanding outwards, Hamburg is focusing on redeveloping formerly industrial areas (brownfields), such as HafenCity, Hamburg, which sits on 388 acres and is slated to add 5500 homes, commercial areas, green space, offices, schools—including a university—and daycare, all following the city’s green building standards. Hamburg’s “urban densification” efforts, as opposed to urban sprawl, prevent the city’s ecological footprint from spreading outward, potentially converting rural lands into suburban areas (Benfield 2011 ). Hamburg’s city leaders have made raising awareness about air quality among its residents a priority and have “ambitious climate protection goals” that aim to reduce Hamburg’s CO 2 emissions by 40% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050. Investments in energy-saving measures in public buildings are partly responsible for reducing the per capita emissions by 15% against 1990 (European Commission 2009 ).

Finally, Dublin, which has similar characteristics to Hamburg in terms of per capita income and other variables in our dataset, illustrates the environmental consequences possible with high population growth (1.51% during the period of study). With a growing population and growing emissions, Dublin, Ireland, does not represent the typical trend in European environmental standards. Between 1990 and 2006, Dublin’s annual emissions increased by almost 15,000 kilotons (CO 2 ). The majority of that increase in emissions came from the rapidly increasing transport and residential sectors as a result of the transportation and housing demands of Dublin’s burgeoning population. In fact, the transport sector has shown an increase of 165% from 1990 to 2006 (Environmental Protection Agency 2006 ). In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency projects Ireland will fail to meet its obligations under the EU emissions reduction agreement by 2020 (ibid). As a solution to Dublin’s growing population and rising emissions, the Dublin City Council’s 2016 –2022 Development Plan proposes redeveloping “vacant, derelict, and under-used lands with a focus on areas close to public transport corridors as well as areas of under-utilized physical and social infrastructure.” The city council also recognizes the importance of green infrastructure and has identified it as significantly contributing “in the areas of development management, climate change and environmental risk management” (Dublin City Council 2016 ).

Conclusion and Discussion

Bookchin ( 1996 , p. 30) suggests that “[t]he ‘population problem’ has a Phoenix-like existence: it rises from the ashes at least every generation and sometimes every decade or so.” But this is also true about the “depopulation problem,” which has recurred periodically over the last centuries (see Teitelbaum and Winter 1985 ). Both Malthusian (abundance of population is bad) and “cornucopian” (abundance of population is good) ideas are found in writings throughout recorded history (see, e.g., Schumpeter 1954 , pp. 250–251; Spengler 1998 , pp .4–5). Today, worries about “too few” instead of “too many people” seem to dominate the European discourse (Coole 2013 ). Trends in public discourse may or may not reflect empirical evidence on the topic. The question of whether population growth is harmful for the environment cannot be solved by solely looking at the discourse. The fact alone that people (perhaps unfoundedly) warned of “overpopulation” at times when world population was 0.2 billion (Plato), 1.0 billion (Malthus) or 3.5 billion (Ehrlich 1968 ) does not prove that any further increases from today’s 7 billion will necessarily come without further adverse consequences.

Population growth affects the environment in Europe: This is what our regional-level analysis of changes in urban land growth and CO 2 emissions indicates. However, we find significant differences between Western and Eastern Europe. In the West, regions with population growth are clearly experiencing both more urban growth as well as a greater increase in CO 2 emissions compared with stationary or shrinking regions. This suggests that population acts as a scale factor for environmental degradation in the West, as proponents of IPAT have argued. In the East, however, where population is mostly decreasing, there is no such correlation. Instead, urban growth in Eastern Europe seems to have more to do with affluence, and emissions have grown strongest in those regions where they have previously been low.

Many Western European regions are expected to experience population growth in the coming decades, mostly due to internal population shifts and international immigration. Immigration from non-European countries has clearly been one of the most salient political topics in recent years and will likely continue to be in the near future. However, it is also a strongly polarizing topic that has triggered schisms among many environmentalists (Huang 2012 ). Some have pointed out that, on a global level, migration is a zero-sum game and therefore world population growth matters, not changes in its spatial distribution (e.g., Mazur 2012 ). Others have shown that an individual’s environmental footprint grows after moving to a developed country (e.g., Conca et al. 2002 ). This argument obviously only holds if the unequal distribution of wealth and pollutants is assumed to persist. In any case, there are no reasons to believe that for a specific ecosystem under pressure from human population growth, it matters whether the additional people were born within some specific borders or somewhere else. And global environmental problems can certainly not be solved by limiting immigration to Europe. However, the empirical evidence suggests that future population growth as a result of immigration will make it harder for the European Union to achieve its climate goals.

See Tables  3 , ​ ,4, 4 , and ​ and5 5 .

Table 3

Descriptive statistics

Table 4

Determinants of urban land growth in European NUTS-3 regions (additional spatial model specifications)

Table 5

Determinants of CO 2 emission change in European NUTS-3 regions (additional spatial model specifications)

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

1 The EU classifies its territory into four layers according to the Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques (NUTS). The lowest level consists of NUTS-3 regions, designed to usually host between 150,000 and 800,000 people. France, for instance, consists of 100 NUTS-3 regions (départements), 20 NUTS-2 regions (régions), 8 NUTS-1 regions (groups of régions), and one NUTS-0 region (metropolitan France).

2 These countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. For CO 2 emissions, no data were available for Croatia. As a result of a reform of regional boundaries in the German state of Saxony, most regions in Saxony are missing from the analysis (note the white area on the maps).

3 For the models explaining urban growth which is measured between 1990 and 2006, population growth is averaged for this period. However, population data are not available for all regions since 1990 in the source dataset; for these regions the values refer to average population growth between the earliest available year since 1990 and 2008. Figure  1 displays average annual population growth rates between 2000 and 2008 for all regions.

4 Since urban land use is measured as a percentage of total land use and therefore 0–1 bounded, we use the logit transformation on this variable.

5 A random effects model was initially considered (providing similar results to the fixed effects model), but a Hausman test suggested superiority of the fixed effects estimator. Since we are not interested in estimating country-level predictors, we went without random effects (or multilevel) models.

6 Optimal matching and genetic matching were used as alternative algorithms. Since the results do not differ substantially, we only report the findings from propensity score matching here.

Contributor Information

Hannes Weber, Phone: +49 621 181-2816, Email: [email protected] .

Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba, Phone: +1 901 843-3571, Email: ude.sedohr@jabbuics .

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373 Population Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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• The Negative Effects of the Rapid Increase in Human Population in the World To begin with, increase in human population has negatively affected natural resources in various parts of the world. The rapid increase in human population has led to increased industrial production in nearly all countries.
• The Rapid Population Growth Causes and Effect A significant note to be taken concerning overpopulation is that it does not just refer to the density of the population, but it is a comparison of the density as a ratio of resources.
• African-Americans as US Vulnerable Population They are designated vulnerable since they cannot protect themselves from others and lack the proper platform to air their grievances and problems. African-Americans cannot advocate for themselves since they lack proper government representation and a […]
• Mental Health and Wellness in Aging Population This research proposal will examine the aspects of wellness with regards to the dimensions of mental health and among the aged.
• The Population Pyramid in Mexico The indicator of life expectancy is highest in the developed country followed by developing country and least in the underdeveloped country.
• Election Campaign Promises and Population Benefits While it may be true that political and economic realities often hinder such promises from being carried out, it is rather interesting to realize that a vast majority of people that have been elected into […]
• Research Sampling, Target Population, and Surveys The characteristic feature of the nonprobability sampling is that this type of research sampling does not include a random collection of data, in contrast to the probability sampling.
• Healthcare in Saudi Arabia and the High Population Growth Rate Considering the fact that the dynamics of attaining organizational success have changed from financial capital to labor, the success of the KSA healthcare sector in providing services will depend on the expertise, knowledge, and level […]
• The US Annual GDP and Population Growth: Statistical Analysis This coefficient, or R2 for short, determines the degree of reliability of the constructed model for the variance of the data; in other words, the closer the value of R2 is to 1, the better […]
• The Aging Population’s Retirement Security There is a continuous increase in the aging population number, without any retirement security hence a need for a collective effort to ensure stability and dignity for the elderly population in the future.
• Global Issues: Addressing an Aging Population An important issue that is currently facing the world community is aging due to the increasing number of older people. Migration leaves the countries in which people are moving with a significant number of older […]
• The Impact of Criminal Organizations on the Population in the South of Italy In addition, aspects of the history of the emergence of the mafia and the factors that led it to the current state of affairs are touched upon.
• Breast Cancer and Its Population Burden The other objectives that are central to this paper are highlighted below: To determine which group is at a high risk of breast cancer To elucidate the impact of breast cancer on elderly women and […]
• Population Ecology: Jumping Ships for Survival The purpose of the present work was to examine population patterns for a dummy population and data on the deaths of 80 individuals.
• Positive Psychology Intervention for Ageing Population This study aims to promote the integration of negative emotions in Positive Psychology Intervention to achieve a holistic approach. The study will also highlight the importance of exploring negative emotions in positive psychology to promote […]
• Discrimination Against the Elderly Population in the Medical Field The first week I was preoccupied, being my first time interacting with the older patients and also the fact that it was my first week and I was just getting used to the environment.
• Psychoeducation Group for Trauma in the Native American Population To summarize, in terms of the population’s fundamental demographics, it can be stated that Native Americans constitute a disadvantaged group due to the ongoing issues with their social, political, and health.
• Preventing Obesity Among the Hispanic Population The first factor within the dimension of relationships and expectations is associated with the perception of health-related values, beliefs, and attitudes that create a basis for an individual to engage in healthy behaviors.
• Urinary Tract Infection in Geriatric Population UTI is a prevalent condition that influences the social, emotional, physical, and economic well-being of the older population in the United States, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Population’s Impact on Migration In addition, Feng et al.claim that the concept of one-child households is a strategy for lowering the birth rate. In “Let the People Go: The Problem with Strict Migration Limits,” Michael and Justin explain that […]
• Homeless as At-Risk Population Based on the statistics from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, about 580466 people were “experiencing homelessness on our streets and in shelters in America” as of 2020.
• Exposure Therapy for Adult Population However, one of the most relevant and important treatments for social anxiety for adult people is exposure therapy. To conclude, social anxiety disorder is an important issue that interrupts the daily lives of various individuals […]
• Opioid Crisis and the Veteran Population The first alternative is to reduce the frequency of opioid prescriptions by providing relevant education and training for Hawaii clinicians to encourage them to utilize alternative treatment methods for veterans in need of pain management.
• The Prevention of Diabetes and Its Consequences on the Population At the same time, these findings can also be included in educational programs for people living with diabetes to warn them of the risks of fractures and prevent them.
• Pollination: Decline in the European Honeybee Population First, the study will aspire to establish the definite and expected rate of decline in the European honeybee population over the years.
• Nursing Care for Elderly Population As experts in the field, it is crucial to be aware of potential ethical dilemmas when working with the aging population.
• Prediabetes in the African-American Population The author’s work with DSMES proves that an evidence-based self-intervention may be applied via lowering blood sugar as high blood sugar is a characteristic of diabetes.
• Why Is Home Dialysis More Beneficial for the Adult Population? The purpose of the study is correctly focused on such phenomena as a comparison, description, and characterization of the fundamental components of home dialysis and its impact, influence, and effect on a patient.
• Population Diversity of the Middle East Cultural differences in the Middle East are primarily reflected by the languages and, more specifically, the existence of their numerous dialects in the area.
• Population Health Outcomes and Healthcare Service Delivery In terms of population health outcomes, changes in indicators like general and infant mortality and life expectancy “show that the health status in the U.S.population is improving over time, although racial and ethnic disparities persist”.
• Decline in the Honeybee Population and Farmers in the United States The analysis of farming in the country shows that the added revenue to crop production because of the pollinators’ activity is about $18 billion. Statistics evidence the topicality of the problem and the necessity to […]
• Population Health Promotion Benefits As a result, the community health nurse must supervise the community members in order to manage and control their health medical condition.
• Helping Black Population With Hypertension in New York State As evidence of the successful implementation of the program, the results demonstrated the reduction of the blood pressure after half of the year of treatment.
• Depression Among the Medicare Population in Maryland The statistics about the prevalence and comorbidity rates of depression are provided from the Medicare Chronic Conditions Dashboard and are portrayed in the table included in the paper.
• Depression as Public Health Population-Based Issue In regard to particular races and ethnicities, CDC provided the following breakdown of female breast cancer cases and deaths: White women: 128 new cases and 20 deaths per 100.
• The Black Population of New York State Analysis Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the black population of New York state affected by hypertension and analyze the reasons behind it and the interventions to improve the health outcomes.
• The Effects of Gold Mining in the Amazons on the Environment and the Population Excessive gold mining in the Amazon has led to the depletion of essential soil nutrients, especially nitrogen. As a result, ASGM in the Amazon has led to the destruction of the Amazon forest.
• The Older Population’s Disparities and Oppression The relationships between the younger and the older populations introduce a problem of abuse and disparities between the two. To conclude, it is clear that the problem of oppression and abuse of the elderly population […]
• Healthcare Administrators’ Role in Population Health The work of these specialists is as important as ever, yet they must change their practice because of growing disparity of healthcare access, while simultaneously requiring evaluating the potential influence and spending on new healthcare […]
• Population Health and How It Relates to Healthcare Any state seeks to optimize the delivery of health services and improve the well-being of its population. The aspect of economic development of the territory influences the morbidity of all people, first of all, children, […]
• Adolescent Population’s Characteristics and Health It is important to note that the teenager or adolescent population includes individuals between the ages of 10 to 19. The adolescent population is unique and complex, which is its social determinants of health are […]
• The Effect of Increased Median Age of Population on the Consumer Behavior Secondly, having no or fewer children allows people to spend more money on their own needs and increase the quality of childcare. Firstly, higher median age leads to more opportunities for people and increased diversity […]
• Health Issues of Vulnerable Population in Bolivia Bolivia presents one of the countries where lack of access to water causes various health issues, especially for the vulnerable population of women and children.
• Sexuality in the Elderly Population The cartoon chosen for the project depicts the physiological, psychological, and social components of sexual development in older adults, demonstrating that they are stigmatized due to their bodily changes and the absence of personal and […]
• Teen Pregnancy as a Population Health Problem The population affected by this health issue is adolescents between the ages of 15 to 19 or even girls at the age of 10.
• Person-Centered-Care for Vulnerable Population Even though this group has been provided with benefits, the inequalities still matter because they affect the public health outcomes and the quality of medicine in general. In conclusion, the economically-disadvantaged group is still exposed […]
• Early Teen Pregnancy as Population Health Problem First of all, the importance of the health of adolescents and children is due to their role as a reserve of society in all spheres of life of the state.
• Problems of Indigenous Population of America and Canada The author notes trade as one of the areas of development of local communities, which influenced the way of life of the Indians.
• Obesity in Adolescent Hispanic Population According to Kemp, “the percent of Black and Hispanic teens with obesity increased significantly over the past decade, but the prevalence of obesity remained unchanged for non-Hispanic White adolescents and young children, according to data […]
• One-Day Resort in Vietnam: Entry Strategy, Target Population, and Product Description The number of international tourists arriving in the country in 2019 was one of the highest in the Asia Pacific region, and the country’s tourism receipts are set to increase every year until 2020.
• Alcohol-Induced Chronic Pancreatitis: Population Affected, Side Effects, and Treatment The recurrence of acute pancreatitis is linked to the development of chronic pancreatitis, and it is more prevalent in alcoholics who use alcohol often.
• Reduction of Obesity in the Adolescent Hispanic Population According to Kemp, “the percent of Black and Hispanic teens with obesity increased significantly over the past decade, but the prevalence of obesity remained unchanged for non-Hispanic White adolescents and for young children, according to […]
• The Black Population’s Disproportionate Mortality Rates From COVID-19 Due to general inequities in the public health system of the United States, such as a lack of health insurance caused by low income and unemployment, limited access to health care services, and the underrepresentation […]
• Major Depressive Disorder: Individual and Population Perspectives The primary focus of tins research is to illustrate specific environmental influences related to major depressive disorder by implementing the Public Health Exposome Model and, therefore, enhance a better understanding of factors that influence and […]
• Vaccination of Indigenous Population in Queensland The CDC evaluation model is used in the obtaining of the program policies in healthcare and sickness arresting. The engagement of stakeholders is the first step where the Australian Government Department of Health and the […]
• Infertility: Causes, Population Affected, and Treatment Infertility is one of the most common problems these days, and it means that a person does not have a chance to get pregnant for several health issues. The percentage of females suffering from infertility […]
• Chronic Renal Failure Disease: Causes, the Population Affected, and Prognosis In addition, the authors describe the impact of disease on clinical outcomes and the role of middle molecules as significant factors in the onset of pathology. The end stage of kidney damage is the stage […]
• The Issue of Overpopulation and Human Population Growth Control The consequences of overpopulation include the depletion of natural resources and climate change which have hindered the conservation of natural resources such as water and animals.
• The Salmonella Outbreak: Population, Causes, and Disparities In particular, behavioral determinants identify that the greatest chance of infection is present in groups that consume raw eggs and pay insufficient attention to washing them.
• The COVID-19 Impact on Public Health and Population It is yet to summarize all of the effects of the disease in the pandemic aftermath; however, it is already possible to collect some of the subtotals regarding the impacts on public health.
• Becoming an Ally of the Queer (LGBT) Population From my point of view, this state of affairs is not appropriate and should be addressed, meaning that I could act as an ally for social justice. This information reveals that allying with the LGBT […]
• Substance Use Disorder in Latino Population This leads to a common belief in the inefficiency of said treatment. The clinic offers a variety of addiction treatment services, and can help with rehabilitation from substance abuse.
• Drug Laws Influnce on Different Population Groups Despite all the dangers of drugs, the fight against them should not worsen the living conditions for the population and aggravate injustice. The fight against drugs also unfairly affects women, especially women of color.
• The Influence of Water Quality on the Population of Salmonid Fish It is expected that populations of wild salmonid fish may decline rapidly due to water pollution instead of farmed species because the effects of water pollution are deleterious.
• Sample Versus Population in Statistics Consequently, sampling can be defined as a method used to select a required sample from the whole population. Furthermore, probability-based methods can be divided into simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, and cluster sampling.
• Aging Population and Its Effect on the US Healthcare However, on the flip side, growth in the number of older adults in relation to the young population would also signify a reduction in the labor force and, consequently, a decline in national income.
• Strategies to Detect Early Hypertension in African American Population of Darby Township Community The 2010 Census data for the community demonstrates that the African-American population of Darby constitutes almost 40% of its total population, and it is the group that is targeted by the current study.
• The COVID-19 Effects on the Sex Worker Population Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions increased discrimination, stigma, economic burden, and repressive policies and excluded sex workers from the global pandemic response.
• Population Health Disparities and Healthcare Access Through the case study scenario established, this paper aims to discuss the variables affecting healthcare access, approaches to reduce healthcare disparities, and interventions to enhance access to healthcare among the global population.
• Population Health and Impact of ZIP Codes The life expectancy of people and the health of the population have geographic differences, which is the reason for the ZIP codes paradigm.
• Vulnerable Population: Community Engagement of African Americans Key characteristics of African Americans include higher levels of poverty, greater risk for poor health status, limited access to health services, and higher rates of morbidity, mortality, and infant death rate. Certain health practices exacerbate […]
• Career Development Program for 30-Year-Old Population At the age of thirty, it might be a challenging task for the individual to decide to change one’s career and face particular risks and concerns regarding a new occupation.
• The New Jim Crow System Related to the Black Population As a matter of fact, Jim Crow, or the Jim Crow system, may be defined as a particular racial caste system that existed in the United States between the 1870s and the middle of the […]
• Growing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Among the Nursing Population The nursing population tends to increase in diversity, prioritizing the need to encourage inclusion and equity. Recruiting nurses should include clarifying the terms of inclusion to engage them in the established environment.
• “Population-Centered Health Care in the Community” by Stanhope There is a multitude of moral and ethical issues to be found in the inadequate provision of health care on community, city, and state levels to the incredibly underserved homeless population within the United States.
• Boreal Woodland Caribou: Reduction in Population The fact that Woodland Caribou is a prey to many predators; this is a threat to its survival given the widespread predation that exists in the forest.
• The Persistent High Rates of Heroin Use Among the Puerto Rican Population in the US’ Article In this article, a quantitative approach would have complemented the qualitative method used in identifying high rates of heroin use among Puerto Ricans.
• Managing the Effective Population Size of the New Zealand Snapper Secondly, the method of statistical analysis was used to compare the DNA test results conducted for the two sets of materials and identify the changes in the genetic characteristics of the populations of the species […]
• Physiologically-Structured Population Models and Their Ordinary Differential Equations Reduction The paper seeks to solve the problem of understanding the conditions under which the individual processes against survival, growth, and fission do the developed equations lead to an honest representation of a cell-based model that […]
• Mathematical Biology: Explaining Population Extinction Species in settings with soft carrying capacities such as those with non-negative value K create a restricted expectation of a variation, given a full past history, is non-positive when the species surpasses the carrying volume.
• Vulnerable Population: HIV-AIDS The latest statistics identify HIV/AIDS as a major medical problem affecting the health sector. The disease currently affects over one million citizens.
• Improving Overall Health of Vulnerable Population Thus, the practicum, which is a holistic in approach to public health, will ensure that Hope House Mission and homeless persons have enhanced capacity to address healthcare needs they experience.
• Population-Focused Assessment and Intervention Furthermore, the assessment revealed that around 70% of women in the shelter do not know much about the health of their children and lack adequate parenting skills.
• Education Plan For an At-Risk Population First of all, the representatives of this population group are more prone to obesity which is one of the major causes of diabetes.
• Polypharmacy Effects on the Geriatric Population The planners have also outlined the stakeholders of the program and their roles in developing the program. The activities of the program are organized in a very clear and logical manner.
• The Population of Frail Elderly The sociological issues that the frail elderly faces are many and they include stress and depression fear of death and even change of behavior and personality disorders.
• Heart Disease: Population Affected- Brooklyn Brooklyn leads in morbidity of heart diseases in comparison to the rest of New York and the United States in general.
• Aging Population Study by Christensen Kaare et al. The descriptive approach in the Aging Population: The Challenges Ahead, the article written by Christensen Kaare et al, systematically and accurately elaborates on life expectancy trends in developed nations.
• The Effects of the Tuskegee Study on the Black Population The study at the center of the present discussion is called “The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis: A Case Study in Peripheral Trauma with Implications for Health Professionals”, and concerns some of the lasting implications […]
• UTI Prevention and Management in Geriatric Population UTI is widely spread among people of elderly age, both female and male, and they appear to be vulnerable to this disease due to a range of factors.
• The Notion of Nutrition in the Context of the Elderly Population in the Slum Dwellings of India The study discussed in the present paper will concern the notion of nutrition in the context of the elderly population in the slum dwellings of India.
• Global Black Population’s Health Needs Analysis Nevertheless, there are many helpful health services designed to help the Black community to address such health issues: Black Emotional and Mental Health: focus on healing, wellness, and liberation of Black people.
• Influenza Preparedness Among Public Housing Residents and Low-income Population This is a presentation about influenza preparedness and response among public housing residents and low-income populations.
• Vulnerable Population: Homelessness In such a way, they will be more prepared to come up with quality personalized approaches to health care for this vulnerable population’s representatives.
• Population Pyramid: The Case of the Republic of Moldova The population pyramid of the country during the year 2000 is as follows ): As it is possible to see, the number of people of child-bearing age and pre-child-rearing age are the majority, promising a […]
• Purnell Model for Chinese Migrant Population The choice of the Chinese sub-group is explained by the presence of Chinese culture in many countries of the world due to the increased immigration rate leading to the demand in transcultural nursing.
• Population Health Problem Assessment Although the percentage is declining in the last ten years, smoking is still a health issue and a significant concern to the citizens of the country.
• Effects of Population Increase on Forest Resources Thus there is a need to control the world population. This is a guide on how one is to conduct the research, collect data and analyze the data.
• World Population Could Peak Decades Ahead of the UN Forecast According to researchers from the United States, in the second half of the 21st century, the number of people on Earth will begin to decline.
• Global Population Growth and Increased Demand for Food He concluded that there are only two sides in the dialogue regarding the issue the followers of optimistic Norman Borlaug, who could be called Wizards, and the fans of more pessimistic William Vogt, the could […]
• Healthcare Agenda for the Geriatric Population Therefore, policies relating to reliable, effective, and efficient health care of the elderly in their physical environment should be formulated. Therefore, governments should formulate and fully implement policies relating to the environment of the geriatric […]
• Senegal’s Population and Migration Profile As per current projections, the population of Senegal is projected to increase for the remainder of the century. Roughly 42% of the population of Senegal lives in the rural area.
• Suicide Prevention Facts on the Adolescent Population Adolescent suicide and the increasing level of child suicide are painful topics that pose a number of problems and questions for parents and society: What prompts adolescents to take this step? Is it possible to […]
• Heart Disease Among Hispanic and Latino Population Hispanics and Latinos have the highest propensity for heart related diseases in the society. They are at a very high risk of developing diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.
• Policy and Advocacy for Improving Health Population She states that it is always possible to volunteer to participate in policy-making activities and prepare a report on the necessary changes to present to decision-makers.
• Members of the American Population Remain Loyalists Furthermore, the fact that the opponents of Loyalists resorted to brutality and use of violence as the means of getting their point across did not help in convincing the supporters of the Crown that the […]
• One Can Protect the Entire U.S. Population Without Having to Vaccinate Everyone The vaccinated population will act as a shield of the other section of the population that is not vaccinated. Diseases can cause damage to a population, if measures are not taken, to ensure that the […]
• The Role of Program Development in Maintaining a Healthy Population On this light, the health departments put efforts to understand the state of health in a given population. In this case, 93 percent of the population comprised the males.
• Benefits of Exercises in the Aging Population Balance issues and falls are very frequent in the elderly, and they significantly contribute to the increased rates of institutionalization. This makes Tai Chi an important intervention in enhancing balance and reducing the risk of […]
• Hypothesis Testing of a Single Population 7 is assumed to be the mean of the population and the average sample sales of the selected sales representatives should be equal or close to the population mean.
• Intercultural Communication and Healthcare Delivery: Cranford Population The racial composition of the Cranford population shows that it comprises of different races, which implies that cultural communication is essential in the delivery of healthcare services.
• Moving Upstream to Improve Population Health Down the Road Due to the influence of the environment on the wellbeing of people, the need for devising policies for a sustainable future helps in supporting the vitality and productivity of society.
• Understanding of the Homeless Population The state of focus is Georgia and the County of Fulton. 2 percent of homeless individuals had severe cases of mental illnesses Nearly 34.
• Asthma Among the Japanese Population In a report by Nakazawa in which the author sought to determine the trend of asthma mortality among the Japanese population, emotional stress and fatigue emerged as the leading factors for the causation of asthma.
• Non-Citizen Population Estimates by Age Group and Gender Most of the female population was in the 20-24, 25-29 and 30-34 age brackets. Meanwhile, the majority of the male population was found in the 25-29, 30-34 and 35-39 age brackets.
• Education Role in Prompting Effective Population-Wide Health Behaviour Change Despite the efforts exerted by governments, health activists, and other health organizations so as to provide vast education on health matters, limited health behaviour changes have been attained.
• Suicide Among Aboriginal Population The prevention officer’s main role is the wrong approach since it is generic in nature and not tied to the problems of the Aboriginal population.
• Florida Prisons: Location, Population and Current Issue This paper will identify the types and locations of Florida’s prisons with a description of the recent inmate population and an analysis of the issues that currently affect the prison system.
• Arthritis: Treatment and Impact on Population Arthritis is an inflammation of joints that results in pain in the affected joints and eventually, the pain spreads to the rest of the body parts.
• Homeless Persons as Vulnerable Population in the US The nature of homelessness and its link to the resources available, the status of health and related risks can be of great significant to nurses.
• Myth: The Aging Population Is to Blame for Uncontrollable The issue of aging of the population is very critical, especially because it becomes worrisome when the health expenses increase and policymakers left with a dilemma on what to focus on in addressing the situation.
• HIV/AIDS Pandemic Facing the Female Global Population The questions that arise are; what factors are contributing to the prevalence, who are the most affected and what are the actions taken to mitigate the HIV/AIDS epidemic?
• Gay Couples as Vulnerable Population and Self-Awareness The idea of same-sex marriages has developed in America to a legal platform. Cultural beliefs that undermine the role of same-sex parenting have an impact on the efficacy of gay couples as parents.
• Caring for the Community: Identification of a Population to Study This laboratory report aims at discussing the peculiarities of the diagnosed disease management and the ways of how sepsis can be developed in the patient’s organism using the results of X-rays and blood tests.
• Bill Proposal: The Vulnerable Population Although the health care law adds benefits to assist in making the Medicare prescription drug coverage more affordable upon reaching the Medicare Part D coverage gap, vulnerable populations have often fallen into what is commonly […]
• Heart Disease Among Hispanic & Latino Population One of the causes of the rise in the case of heart diseases in Westminster is the literacy rate of the Hispanic/Latinos in the county.
• The Spread of Ebola: Vulnerable Population of Liberia Aileen Mar a Marty has been dispatched to Liberia by the World Health Organization to help in combating the rapid spread of Ebola in some West African countries and in particular Liberia. The onset of […]
• Population Health Driver Diagram: Innovations and Their Use in Nursing The significance and effects of the PHDD was proven in 2012, when the reconsideration of the usage of antibiotics was on the agenda of both healthcare services and the services for public health provision.
• Sample Size (n) and Population Size (N) The formula is as follows: Where: n- Sample size in a study Variance of the population Z2- Variance/Error2 Error2- Square of error
• Diverse Population Needs in Prevention of Adult Falls In order to foster fall prevention, it is advisable for adults to exercise regularly in order to improve leg strength and consequently body balance.
• High Morbidity Rates Among the Elderly Population Are Attributed to Falls This paper will explore the research question that: Does the Use of Psychotropic Medications Increase the Risk of Falls Compared to the Non Use of Psychotropic Medications in the Elderly Population?
• Examination of a Global Population Issue of Russia The country is one of the richest in the world. The country also has the largest forest cover in the world, and the largest fresh water lake.
• Alcoholism Among the Adult Population in Wisconsin Alcohol dependency, which is an offshoot of excessive alcohol consumption, has been noted to lead to behaviours such as child abuse and neglect, poor dietary habits and absenteeism among the adult population in Wisconsin.
• Target Population Selection: Regulating Patient Safety To discuss the process of the target population selection, it is necessary to focus on the selection procedures, sample size, the data collection methods, and on the statistics used to analyze the data in the […]
• Effects of Changes in Population Demographics Because of a considerable increase in the age of the HIV/AIDS New Jersey patients, the necessity to take the risks of cardiovascular diseases into account when choosing the type of treatment for the patients in […]
• Population Health Issue: Review
• Epidemiological Measures and Determinants of Population Health
• Population Health and Determinants
• Common Myths About Elderly Population
• Estimating Single Population Parameters
• Elderly Population: Are They Vulnerable?
• Aging Population in the Western United States
• Population Processes and Their Impact
• Human Papillomavirus and Gardasil for Teenage Population
• Population Increase and Birth Control
• Health Insurance in the USA: A Basic Necessity for the Population
• Race-Based Medicine: Diseases in Different Groups of the Population
• The Impacts of Underinsured Population
• Impact of Uninsured Population Project
• Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population
• Population Health Initiative: Healthcare and Ambulatory Care
• Nursing – Vulnerable Population
• Bayou Region of Louisiana: Underserved Population Problems
• Reducing Salt Consumption Among the Population
• Insurance Barriers in Mental Health Population
• “The Prevalence of Paraphilic Interests and Behaviors in the General Population” by Joyal and Carpentier
• “Impact of Whole-Body MRI in a General Population Study” by Schmidt
• Breast Cancer: At-Risk Population, Barriers, and Improvement
• Polygamy and Baptism: Indian Population
• Vulnerable Population: Elderly With Dementia
• Indigenous and Torres Strait Population and Diabetes
• Health Issues of the Population
• Immunization of the Wildlife Population Against Rabies
• Disparities in Healthcare Population Related to the Geriatric Population
• Poverty: Causes and Effects on the Population and Country
• Achieving the Dream Program for Student Population
• The Jewish People: Culture and Population
• Transnational Population of Tamils in Sri Lanka
• ‘The Tide of Population’ by Ehrlich and ‘Too Many Mouths to Feed’ by Lappe
• Human Population Growth and Limiting Factors
• Background Information on Population Census in the USA
• Biodiversity: Population Versus Ecosystem Diversity by David Tilman
• Police Officers Working With Diverse Population. Challenges and Solutions
• Impact of Uninsured in Rural Population
• ”American Holocaust” by David E. Stannard and the Destruction of the Indigenous Population
• Urban Population and Environment
• Thomas Malthus Population Growth Theory
• How Popular Is the Congress Among the Population?
• India’s Population Care and Composition
• The Minority Population in the USA on Purchasing Power
• Population and Environment in South Australia
• Population Grows And Environment
• Human Population Ecology: Human Interaction With the Environment
• Healthcare in the Middle East and the Aging Rates Among the Population
• Increasing Population of People Aged Over 65 Years
• Advocating for a Vulnerable Elderly Population
• Population Growth and World Hunger Links
• Individuals and Families in a Diverse Society: Ageing Population
• Moral Arguments and Population Issues Analysis
• Aging Population of the World as a Healthcare Issue
• Implications of Patient-Centered Care Approach in Rural Population
• Care Coordination for Aging Population in the Clinical Setting
• Population Pressure, Surplus Population, Nature, and Capitalist Development
• Dementia in Elderly Population
• Primary Prevention for the Aging Population
• Chinese Population’s Lifestyle and Diseases
• How Vaccine Refusal Influences the Health of the U.S. Population
• Climate Change Effects on Population Health
• Understanding of Viral Marketing Effectiveness and Population Marketing
• Sustainable Future and World Population Trends
• Biodiversity and Animal Population in Micronesia
• Aging Population Impact on the Labor Market
• Automatic Teller Machines and the Older Population
• Human Population Growth and Carrying Capacity
• Native American Population and Federal Policies
• “Population & Environment” in Mazur’s Feminist Approach
• Breastfeeding Counseling for Low-Income Latino Population
• Perception of Diabetes in the Hispanic Population
• Health Challenges: Low-Income Filipino Population
• Baby Boomer Population Impact on Health Care
• Environmental Ethics and Human Population
• Cancer Epidemiology for American Population
• The UAE Population: Xenical and Weight Loss
• Xenical and Weight Loss in the UAE Population
• Vulnerable Population in Biopsychosocial Assessment
• Hypothesis Testing for Single Population
• Health Service for Australian Indigenous Population
• Health Care for Disabled Population in the US
• Positive Psychology to Understand the Elderly Population
• Hypertension Effects on the African American Population
• Population Health Promotion in Spartanburg
• Australian Population Growth and Forecast for 2020
• Aging Population Trends in American Society
• Population Health and Education in the USA
• Urban Planning and Growing Population
• Climate Changes and Human Population Distribution
• China and India Population: Causes, Impact and Management
• Wolf Population’s Restoration in Adirondack Park
• Community Health and Population-Focused Nursing
• Aging Population Issues in American Prison System
• Berlin as a Home for Culturally Diverse Population
• Obesity in the US Population
• Disposable Water Bottle Usage by Youth Population
• Counseling Native Americans vs. White Population
• Population Size and Foreign Direct Investment
• Population Growth Control and Malthus’ View on It
• Film Theory: Impact on Modern Population
• Population Literacy Skills in Arab Countries
• Literacy of Population in Arab Countries
• The Impacts of Immigrant Population on Median Income
• Medicine: HIV/AIDS as the Key Threat for the Kenyan Population
• Canadian Healthcare Spending on Aging Population
• Global Population Increasing and Control
• Population Growth and the Associated Concerns
• Global Population Innovation and Sustainability
• Healthcare Issues of Elderly Population
• Elderly Population Loneliness Problem
• The Homeless Population Reducing
• Poor Children as a Vulnerable Population
• Vulnerable Population in Laurel
• The Implication of Population Demographics on Businesses
• Global Population Trends
• Human Population Growing Major Issues
• Impact of Aging Population on the US Economy
• Role of Civilian Population in World War I
• Government Issues: The Population Rate Reduction
• Muslims Increase and the Spread of Islam
• Effects of Population Density and Noise
• Population Increase Problem
• Minority Population at Risk: Homelessness
• Comparing the Population Growth of India and the United States
• The Human Population, Demographic Transition: Phase IV
• Population Growth Impacts on the Environment
• Descriptive Method Design – Sample Population
• Effects of Ageing Population as Driving Force
• Latino Population: Heterogeneity, Migration, Acculturation and Health
• European Colonization Impacts on the Native American Population
• Public Health in Culturally Diverse Population
• Social Perspectives in Population Health
• Population Growth Control
• Population Ageing in Canada
• Relationship Between Japanese Population in the US and Illegal Immigrants
• Supporting of Marijuana Legalization Among the Adult Population
• Review of Journal: China’s Floating Population
• Population and Sustainability
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IvyPanda . "373 Population Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/population-essay-topics/.

Essay on Population for Students and Children

500+ words essay on population.

Population refers to the total number of beings living in a particular area. Population helps us get an estimate of the number of beings and how to act accordingly. For instance, if we know the particular population of a city, we can estimate the number of resources it needs. Similarly, we can do the same for animals. If we look at the human population, we see how it is becoming a cause of concern. In particular, the third world countries suffer the most from population explosion. As it is the resources there are limited and the ever-increasing population just makes it worse. On the other hand, there is a problem of low population in many regions.

India population crisis

India faces a major population crisis due to the growing population. If we were to estimate, we can say that almost 17% of the population of the world lives in India alone. India ranks second in the list of most populated countries.

Furthermore, India is also one of the countries with low literacy rates. This factor contributes largely to the population explosion in India. It is usually seen that the illiterate and poor classes have a greater number of children. This happens mainly because they do not have sufficient knowledge about birth control methods . In addition, more people in a family are equals to more helping hands. This means they have better chances of earning.

Moreover, we also see how these classes practice early marriage. This makes it one of the major reasons for a greater population. People marry off their young daughters to men way older than them for money or to get free from their responsibility. The young girl bears children from an early age and continues to do so for a long time.

As India is facing a shortage of resources, the population crisis just adds on to the problem. It makes it quite hard for every citizen to get an equal share of resources. This makes the poor poorer and the rich richer.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Impact of Population Explosion

Subsequently, pollution levels are on the rise because of the population explosion. As more and more humans are purchasing automobiles, our air is getting polluted. Moreover, the increased need calls for faster rates of industrialization. These industries pollute our water and lands, harming and degrading our quality of life.

In addition, our climate is also facing drastic changes because of human activities. Climate change is real and it is happening. It is impacting our lives very harmfully and must be monitored now. Global warming which occurs mostly due to activities by humans is one of the factors for climate change.

Humans are still able to withstand the climate and adapt accordingly, but animals cannot. This is why wildlife is getting extinct as well.

In other words, man always thinks about his well-being and becomes selfish. He overlooks the impact he is creating on the surroundings. If the population rates continue to rise at this rate, then we won’t be able to survive for long. As with this population growth comes harmful consequences. Therefore, we must take measures to control the population.

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