Human Carrying Capacity and World Hunger
Food as the Limiting Resource on an Island

Articles & Lessons >> Green Topics >> Series: Human Carrying Capacity>> HCC island >> HCC limits >> HCC solutions

What is the Carrying Capacity if Limited by Hunger?

Carrying Capacityis an ecological term that refers to how many of a species can exist in an envirionment or location. For instance, how many people can survive on an island using only the resources that exist on the island would be the carrying capacity of the island.

In determining carrying capacity, consider one resourse at a time, then combine the influences of all resources. For instance, the resources of food, water, and shelter all affect a population's ability to survive successfully -- to subsist in an adequate manner.

The only resource considered in this discussion is food.

Of course there are many assumptions to make about the island.. Let's take a look at some of them.

• The humans must eat only food found on the island or in the areas of the sea reached by the available fishing boats.
  • The fishing boats do not go further than a few miles from shore and do not reach another island.
• There are no immigrants or emigrants.
• All individual humans are subsisting adequately.
• There are no catastrophes such as plague, climatic or geological disasters.

When these conditions are met, then the carrying capacity of the island is the maximum population of humans that can maintain adequate susistance, the limit of a population. But what is that number? How do we know it has been reached?

Once the population goes over that number, things happen. Someone doesn't get enough to eat because there is not enough food to go around. This limit is called carrying capacity.

Continued: Parts 2 ; 3 >>Teachable Moment >> Non-Profit, Links, Books, & More

Read about global warming -- Essays 1, 2

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Heifer's Links to Resources
Food and Society, a Kellog Foundation
Articles on Feeding the World's Population
Solar Cooking International

Fiction

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Non-fiction Books on World Hunger