Population and Environment Flashcards
What environmental conditions can influence how the population is distributed?
- Soil, resources and climate affect this.
What is population distribution?
- The pattern of where people live.
What is population density?
- The amount of people living in an area per square kilometer.
What is the difference between Libya’s population density and Bangladesh’s?
- Libya (4 people/km squared)
- Bangladesh (1200 people/km squared)
How has the population increased since 1950?
- Increased from 2.5 billion people in 1950 to 7.5 billion in 2017.
What type of countries are experiencing higher population increases?
- NEEs/Developing countries such as Nigeria.
What are 2 ways that climate affects populations?
- Fewer people live in desert regions but more people live in temperate areas.
- Climate change leads to rising sea levels, which encourages people to move inland.
How does soil affect populations?
- Soil fertility levels determines the amount and type of food that can be produced in an area (E.G. Naples built near volcanoes).
How does the access to resources affect populations?
- Avaliability to water and food affects how populations can grow and develop.
- E.G. Populations in desert regions are low due to the lack of access to water.
What is the global trend of food production?
- Food production has massively increased as well as the amount of land used for producing food.
What areas are high producers and why?
- North America and East Asia (Due to large funding for production and suitable, versatile climatic conditions).
What areas are low producers and why?
- Central America and Africa (Harsh climate and less funding for food production)
(Topography such as mountains and volcanoes affect food production too).
What is the trend of food consumption across the world?
- More developed countries such as USA and UK consume more food than Libya and Congo.
Why do HICs consume more food than LICs?
- They can afford it.
- Their lifestyle is more suited to disposable incomes.
How can the high consumption trend of HICs be misleading?
- Because people within HICs have varying levels of food consumption.
How many more kgs of meat do HICs eat verses developing countries?
29kg more/ 30
What is agriculture productivity?
- The measure of the amount of food being produced in an area via the ratio of agricultural outputs to inputs.
What is commercial farming?
- The production of crops/livestock to make a profit (High agricultural productivity)
What is subsistence farming?
- Production of food which is enough for a family.
What is intensive farming?
- Producing as much food as possible.
What is extensive farming?
- The production of as little food as possible.
Why is extensive farming better than intensive farming?
- Better animal welfare and care for the environment than intensive.
What 2 categories can intensive farming be split into?
- Laboured intensive farming involves high utilisation of people with less capital.
- Artifical intensive farming involves the high utilisation of fertilisers and machinery.
What is the definition of health?
- Health is defined as your physical, mental and social well-being in the absence of disease.
What is morbidity?
- The rate of disease.
What is prevalence vs incidence?
- Prevalence measures the number of cases but incidence is the number of new cases..
Why are communicable diseases more of an issue in LICs than HICs?
- Due to the lack of clean water, sanitation and healthcare as well as limited education and overcrowding of populations.
Why are non-communicable diseases more of an issue in HICs than LICs?
- HIc’s have aging populations who are therefore more vulnerable to diseases such as cancer.
- People in HICs live unhealthier lifestyles due to processed diets too.
Why is the risk of mortality in LICs significantly higher than the risk of mortality in HICs?
- Due to malnutrition and the lack of health care in LICs.
Why does malnutrition cause death?
- The body doesn’t have enough nutrients to fight off disease.
What is the Epidemiological Transition?
- A model which suggests that diseases in countries become more non-communicable and easier to maintain as social and economic development increases.
Which country has experienced the Epidemiological Transition in very quick succession?
South Korea.
What is soil?
- Soil is all the material found between the ground surface and bedrock.
How does soil formation link to climate?
- Climate determines weathering rate, vegetation type and decomposition rate.
What are zonal soils?
- The most matured soils.
What are distinct layers in the soil profile called?
- Soil horizons.
What are podzols?
- Soils that are located in the northern hemisphere where there is more precipitation than evapotranspiration.
What is the O horizon like in podzols?
- A layer of leaf litter.
What is the A horizon like in podzols?
- Acidic.
What is leaching?
- The process in which nutrients move down the soil horizons.
What is the E horizon like in podzols?
- Pale due to the iron and aluminium.
What is the B horizon like in podzols?
- reddish-brown
What is a hard pan?
- A hard layer of iron
Why are podzols not good for agriculture?
- The acidity and lack of minerals prevents crop growth.
- The hard pan prevents water from draining away making soil waterlogged.
What are latosols?
- Soils found in tropical rainforests.
Why is the A zone of latosols thin?
- Vegetation will absorb nutrients rather than them staying in the soil.
What is the O horizon of latosols like?
- Thick.
Why are latosols bad for agriculture?
- Low nutrient content leads to poor agricultural use.
- When trees get deforested, there is no protection for the soil which leads to more leaching and less fertile soil.
