Component 3

Cultural Ecology

the relationship between human cultures and their environments, focusing on how people adapt to their surroundings through technology, practices, and social organization

Carrying Capacity

The upper limit on production and population in a given environment under a given technology without degrading the source place.

Point of diminishing return

Is the point  the amount of food produced per unit of effort begin to fall

Intensification 

Is an increase in labor out put to products greater yields without expanding land uses

Depletion

The limitations of valid resource 

Liebig’s Law of the minimum

the population will be limited by critical resources that are in the shortest supply

Sustainability

a level of production immediately prior to the point of diminishing returns

Rapa Nui- Easter Island

-Discovered on Easter day 1722

-Population 2000 people

-Domesticated chicken only

-No trees

Types of tree on Easter Island 

-Haunau

-Toromino

-Palm tree

Rapa Nui people

-Established 400 AD

-Polynesian ancestry

-Peak population 7,000-20,000

Rapa Nui Collapse

-800 AD Forest destruction

-1400 AD Palm become extinct

-1500 AD Porpoise no longer consume, and consumption on chicken and human grew