Scribd
Upload
60 views

Population: Crash

A reindeer population on one of the Pribilof Islands off Alaska experienced a crash in the 1930s after peaking at around 2000 individuals in 1935. The population had been introduced in 1911 with just 26 reindeer. As the population grew exponentially for 25 years, it exceeded the island's carrying capacity, overgrazing the vegetation. When resources were exhausted, the population crashed abruptly, plunging to just 8 reindeer by the 1940s, around 1% of its peak size. Recovery of the island's arctic vegetation after overgrazing by reindeer takes 15-20 years.

Uploaded by

Muh Haidir
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
60 views

Population: Crash

A reindeer population on one of the Pribilof Islands off Alaska experienced a crash in the 1930s after peaking at around 2000 individuals in 1935. The population had been introduced in 1911 with just 26 reindeer. As the population grew exponentially for 25 years, it exceeded the island's carrying capacity, overgrazing the vegetation. When resources were exhausted, the population crashed abruptly, plunging to just 8 reindeer by the 1940s, around 1% of its peak size. Recovery of the island's arctic vegetation after overgrazing by reindeer takes 15-20 years.

Uploaded by

Muh Haidir
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

A, population crash . Figure 7.

5
a. A herd of reindeer on one of the Pribilof lslands off the coast of Alaska. Jarnes P. Wright, PE

1S10 1920 '1930 1s40 1s50


Year
#s b. Graph of the reindeer population originally introduced to one of the Pribilof
VC. Shetler "The Hise and Fall of a Beindeer Herd." lslands in 191 l. Note the population crash, which followed the peak population
1 1 Sci. Month.,Vol73. attained in 1935.

carrying capacity. Sometimes a population that overshoots the number of reindeer plunged to 8, about one-third the
K will experience a papulation rrash,, am atrrupt decline size of the original introduced population and less than
from high to low population density when resources are I percent of the population ar irs peak (Figure 7.5b).
exhausted. Such an abrupt chauge is commonly observed Recovery ofarctic and sutrarctic vegetation after overgraz-
in tracterial cultures, zooplankton, and other populations ing try reindeer takes 15 to 20 years. During that period,
whose resources are exhausted. the carrying capacity for reindeer is greatly reduced.
The availability ofwinter forage largely determines the
carrying capacity for reindeeE which live in cold northern GOTUCEPTCHECK
habitats. In 1911, a small herd of 26 reindeer was intro-
duced on one of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea 1. What is population ecology?
(Figure 7.5a). The herd's population increased exponen- 2. How do each of the following affect population
tially for about 25 years, until there were approximately size: birth rate, death rate, immigration, and
2000 reindeer, many more than the island could support, emigration?
particularly in winter. The reindeer overgra.zed the veg- 3. How do biotic potential andlor carrying
etation until the plant life was almost wiped oul Then, in capacity produce the J-shaped and S-shaped
slightly over a decade, as reindeer died fiom starvation, population grovrrth curves?
164 CHAPTER 7 Human Population Change and the Environment

You might also like