Population Warm Ups
1. What expression is used to determine growth rate of a population?
a. (Crude birth rate + Immigration rate) - (Crude death rate + Emigration rate)
b. Crude birth rate - Crude death rate
c. (Crude birth rate + Emigration rate) - (Crude death rate + Immigration rate)
d. (Crude birth rate + Immigration rate) + (Crude death rate + Emigration rate)
e. Crude and specific birth rates are the only valid measures of population growth.
2. The carrying capacity is _______.
a. the greatest number of niches possible in a given area
b. always the same for a given habitat
c. the average number of offspring carried to term by a species
d. the maximum population size that a given environment can sustain
e. the potential number of species in a given area
3. Which of the following is a typical K-strategist adaptation?
a. 10,000 eggs laid per day
b. small body size
c. a very unstable population level
d. parental care of young
e. short life span
4. Logistic growth _______.
a. is growth when there are no constraints
b. is population growth in which populations experience severe sudden population crashes
c. is demonstrated when population growth rises sharply at first, and then begins to level
off as the effects of limiting factors become stronger
d. includes mold on a piece of bread or bacteria colonizing a dead animal as examples
5. Which of these best matches with a type III survivorship curve?
a. A species that has a constant rate of death throughout its lifespan.
b. Humans
c. An organism that produces huge numbers of offspring, most of which die quickly with
the few survivors not dying until old age.
d. Endemic species
e. A K-selected species
6. How would an age-structure pyramid for a developing nation look different if it were a
developed nation?
a. It would be the same - developed countries have more income per person, but this has
not impact on the age structure.
b. There would be a larger ratio of males to females in each age bracket (for each female
there would be more males).
c. There would be more people in the 0-14 year age brackets.
d. The structure would be the same but there would be more people in each age group
since developed countries contain more people than developing countries.
e. There would be more people in the 50-80 year age brackets and fewer in the 0-20 year
age brackets.
7. The maximum population size that a given environment can sustain is the _______.
a. Population density
b. Tipping point
c. Fecundity
d. Carrying capacity
e. Total fertility rate
8. Which of the following statements is an accurate description of the three principal effects of a
human populations on the environment (the IPAT model)?
a. population, affluence, technology
b. persistence, affluence, time
c. pollution, aggression, technology
d. population, adaptation, total fertility rate
e. population, adaptation, technology
9. What factors determine whether a population of humans grows, shrinks, or remains stable?
a. affluence and technology
b. the carrying capacity
c. availability of medical procedures
d. Population growth = (birth - immigration) - (death - emigration)
e. rates of birth, death, immigration, and emigration
10. According to the demographic transition model of populations over time, ____________?
a. poverty will cause a slow decline in population until resources are evenly distributed
b. rapid population growth is a short-term phenomenon between the drop in death rate
and the drop in birth rate in a population
c. populations will suffer a temporary drop in numbers as birth rates drop below death
rates until the death rate is brought down
d. stable populations cause a change in the carrying capacity of an environment
e. population growth will accelerate as a country stays industrialized for longer periods of
time
11. Given a total fertility rate (TFR) of 2.1, which statement is a correct description of this value?
a. A value of 2.1 means that exponential population growth is occurring.
b. The value means that a male and a female will be replaced by 2 children plus a fraction
to compensate for the death of offspring.
c. The value represents the number of children born per person in a population.
d. At a TFR of 2.1, the population will be shrinking.
e. The value means that the population is growing slowly because 2.1 - 2.0 = +0.1.
12. The population policies of most nations are based on the Cornucopian view held by many
economists. These policies operate on the idea that ____.
a. population growth will result in problems due to resource depletion
b. disease is a limiting factor of population growth so impact on resources is ultimately
minimal
c. geologists have shown that Earth regenerates resources as fast as they are discovered
and used
d. population size must be kept low to prevent the damage caused by erosion, pollution,
and loss of groundwater resources for agriculture
e. populations should continue to grow since the depletion of resources by greater
numbers of people is not a problem because resources can be replaced by others when
depleted
13. As a result of the one child policy, the sex ratio in China _______.
a. could not be determined due to political control over the population
b. is skewed toward more females resulting in more reproduction per person in the
population
c. is evenly distributed between males and females and so has no impact on population
growth
d. is skewed toward more males causing a slowing in population growth
e. is skewed toward the upper class
14. Which of the following effects on population accompanies the change from an agrarian
economy to an industrial economy?
a. Population growth rate slows.
b. Zero population growth will occur soon after industrialization.
c. The population loses numbers.
d. TFR will increase since women are able to stay at home rather than work in the fields to
grow food.
e. The population growth becomes exponential.
15. Which of the following factors would NOT increase the total fertility rate?
a. improved nutrition
b. advancing the total time of reproduction per woman so she does not have to worry
about being too old to have children
c. improved education
d. improved disease control
e. having women be responsible for raising food in an agrarian society
16. What does the S term represent and how does it alter the Impact in the IPAT model used to
evaluate the total impact of human populations on the environment?
a. sensitivity, to denote how sensitive a given population is to population control thereby
reducing human impact
b. sensitivity, to denote how sensitive a given environment is to these pressures causing
more damage for sensitive habitats
c. sustainability of actions, thus reducing the human impact
d. sex ratio, to denote number of mating pairs so as it shifts from 50/50 there is a
reduction in impact
e. suitability, to denote the appropriateness of human activity for environmental
protection, thus lowering the environmental damage
17. What are the four stages of the demographic transition?
a. What are the four stages of the demographic transition?
b. unstable preindustrial stage, transitional stage, industrial stage, stable postindustrial
stage
c. stable preindustrial stage, industrial stage, transitional stage, stable postindustrial stage
d. stable preindustrial stage, transitional stage, industrial stage, stable postindustrial stage
e. hunter-gatherer, agricultural, industrialization, postmodernization
18. The cumulative amount of land and water required to provide the raw materials a person or
population consumes and to dispose of the waste that is produced is called the _______.
a. TFR
b. ecological footprint
c. biosphere
d. carrying capacity
e. demographic transition
19. Why are diseases such as AIDS, which reduce population density, undermining the ability of
developing countries to make the transition to more modern, industrialized societies?
a. They are removing only men from the population.
b. They are removing older populations that rule the country and determine population
policy.
c. They are removing many of the youngest, most reproductively active members of
society limiting their ability to grow
d. They are removing young individuals and thus have no impact on transition to modern
society
e. They are causing "demographic fatigue" which leaves these countries without a
professional class.
20. In 1900, there were approximately 1.75 billion humans on Earth; in 1950, there were
approximately 2.3 billion; in the year 2025, approximately 8 billion people will inhabit the
biosphere. In the time period between 1900 and 2025, what has happened to the human
population?
a. Zero population growth policies are at work.
b. Human population growth rate has not changed in that time.
c. The intervals (in years) of population doubling are fixed.
d. It has stabilized
e. The intervals between population doublings are decreasing
21. The natural rate of population change _______.
a. is the rate of population change without natural disaster
b. only includes deaths due to natural causes
c. is calculated using the total fertility rate of women
d. is the rate of population change due to births and deaths
e. is the rate of population change due to migration
22. Studies have shown that family planning programs _______.
a. have received increased funding over the past two decades from international sources
and particularly the George W. Bush administration.
b. have been very effective at lowering TFR and population growth rates
c. only work in countries with a high per capita income
d. have been ineffective at changing population growth rates unless coupled with
mandatory policies like China's "one child" policy
e. focus on educating men about the importance of lowering fertility rates
23. Which of these is a proper pairing of a characteristic and population growth?
a. High rates of female literacy results in high population growth rates.
b. Access to family planning has no affect on population growth rates.
c. Availability of contraceptives leads to promiscuity and high population growth rates.
d. Countries with low per capita income (poor countries) have high population growth
rates.
e. Women working rather than getting an education lowers growth rates.
24. In the IPAT model, the A tells us that ________.
a. Lack of Affluence (or poverty) is worse than being rich because the demand for fuel
wood causes deforestation.
b. Access to resources allows people to do less damage to the environment since they do
not have to build roads and use energy to transport those resources from far away
c. Ability to drive a hybrid car more than makes up for other wasteful behaviors.
d. Affluence always causes damage
e. Affluence can be both a positive impact and a negative impact on the environment.
25. Which of these statements about the growth of the human population is true?
a. While population is highest in the developing world, most of the world's population is
still in the industrialized, developed countries.
b. The rate at which the population has been growing has slowed in the past 50 years, but
the human population is still getting larger.
c. Population growth is evenly divided with 50% of the increase coming from the
developed countries and 50% from the developing countries.
d. The human population peaked in the 1960s and has been declining since.
e. The human population has been growing at a steady and constant rate since 1800.