Human Populations - Vocabulary

Flashcards for vocabulary review on human population dynamics.

Demography

The study of statistics related to human populations, such as population size, density, distribution, movement, births, and deaths.

Doubling Time

The time it takes for a population to double in number.

Population Pyramid

A type of bar graph that shows the age distribution in a population, which demographers use to study a population.

Ecological Footprint

The amount of productive land that is required for each person in a defined area, such as a country, for food, water, transportation, housing, waste management, and other requirements.

Available Biocapacity

Earth’s carrying capacity for the human population.

Biomagnification

The increase in concentration of a substance, such as methylmercury or DDT, that occurs in a food chain and is not broken down by environmental processes.

Deforestation

The cutting, clearing, or removal of trees so land can be used as pastureland or cropland.

Sustainable

The use of resources, such as food, energy, timber, and other items acquired from the environment, at a level that does not exhaust the supply or cause ecological damage.

Bycatch

Aquatic organisms that are caught unintentionally by fishing gear or nets and often are discarded as waste.

Biodiversity

Encompasses species diversity (the variety of plants, animals, and other organisms on Earth), the genetic diversity that exists within each of these species, and the diversity of ecosystems (ecosystem diversity) to which these species belong.

Overexploitation

The excessive harvesting or killing of a species until it no longer exists or is reduced to a very small population.

Minimum Viable Population Size

Lowest number of individuals that can sustain a population in the wild for a long period of time.