Name Dachange Tones Date
Period 2x
Population Growth Activity: Lessons from the Kaibab Plateau Deer
INTRODUCTION:
An ecosystem may be changed by the things within the biotic
community, as well as by relationships between organisms and their
abiotic environment. The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the
maximum number of organisms that an area can support over time.
An increase in population density can cause such huge changes in the
environment that the environment no longer supports the survival of
that species. Humans can interfere with these natural interactions and
have either a positive or negative effect. This activity uses real data
from a deer population in Arizona to illustrate the phenomena above.
OBJECTIVES
> Graph data on the Kaibab deer
population of Arizona from 1905-1939.
> Analyze the factors that caused the
changes in the deer population.
PROCEDURE:
Before 1905, there were approximately 4,000 deer on almost
30,000 hectares of land on the Kaibab Plateau in Arizona. The
average carrying capacity of the land at that time was estimated to be
about 30,000 deer. Being concerned about the low number of deer,
President Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon National
Game Preserve to protect what he called the "finest deer herd in
America." He did this on November 28, 1906.
the Knihah forest area had already