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population
matters
Carrying capacity
The maximum number of individuals that can A population can exceed the carrying capacity
be supported sustainably by a given environ- of its environment for a short while by using
ment is known as its carrying capacity. For up the stored resources (ie natural capital)
most non-human species, the concept is quite of its environment, but sooner or later the
simple. If carrying capacity is exceeded, the overshoot will catch up. Once the capital
population declines because its environment is exhausted, population numbers inevita-
can no longer support the excess numbers. In bly fall because there are no longer enough
many situations this can happen very rapidly resources available to support the number of
because excessive demand degrades or individuals.
even devastates the environment and there
In the case of human populations, there is
is a sudden and catastrophic feedback effect.
a large variation in per capita consumption
Such a feedback effect can not only eradicate
levels between poor and afuent communi-
those numbers of population in excess of the
ties, so the basic denition of carrying capac-
carrying capacity of an environment but under
ity needs to be qualied and the given level of
certain circumstances it can cause the near
per capita consumption and waste generation
extinction of an entire species.
needs to be taken into consideration. The car-
rying capacity of a given environment is much
greater for people living at a subsistence level
On St Matthew Island in the Bering than it is for people with a typical Western
Sea the US Coastguard shipped in European or North American lifestyle.
29 reindeer in 1944 as food for the
It is also important to note that different geo-
navigation station personnel, but
graphic regions have a greater or smaller car-
none were ever shot and all 29 were
rying capacity. Climate and local geography
left behind at the end of the war. By
both play a crucial part. In some parts of the
1957 the herd swelled in size to over
world, endemic species recover swiftly fol-
a thousand, thriving on the abun-
lowing a drop in population, whereas in other
dant moss and lichen. Although the
areas of the world recovery is measured in tens
animals were healthy, observers
or hundreds of years. Polynesian settlers who
noted small patches of overgrazing.
crossed the Pacic left behind a landscape
The island had reached its carrying
which responded well to burning (they used
capacity. Six thousand were counted
re to clear land and refresh forest growth)
in 1963. The reindeer were thin
but the lands they settled did not. The decline
and showing signs of stress. When
in tree cover on Easter Island, Hawaii and
observers returned in 1966, the
New Zealand is attributed to a fundamental
island was littered with skeletons.
misunderstanding of the localised conditions
The herd had been reduced to just
by the newly arriving people2. Similarly, the
42 reindeer with no active males; it
Viking community which settled in Greenland
faced extinction in the next genera-
experienced a parallel collapse when they
tion and the island environment had
attempted to farm the marginal lands in the
become devastated by the herd1.
same manner they had done with other lands
where they settled, but without taking account

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population
matters
Carrying capacity, contd.

of local conditions3. The lesson is that we part attributed to their populations exceeding
cannot assume that any particular agricultural the carrying capacity of their local ecosystems.
method is sustainable in all circumstances. However, where the evidence is archaeologi-
cal rather than historically documented, it is
Another case where a human community is
often difcult to determine with any certainty
believed to have exceeded its carrying capac-
the extent to which overpopulation rather than
ity is that of the Mayans. It appears that popu-
other factors such as climate change, conict,
lation pressure forced them to cultivate more
social unrest, etc, was the principal cause of
and more marginal land, leading to a reduction
the collapse. The fact that declining welfare of
of carrying capacity in their ecosystem. The
communities can be the result of a combina-
forest land was not amenable to long-term
tion of factors also means that the symptoms
intense cultivation, leading to topsoil erosion
of a population being near to exceeding its car-
on a large scale. This in turn led to conict
rying capacity are often misread. For example
between Mayan cities to compete for land
starvation following a poor harvest may be
which inevitably could not support the rising
attributed only to the poor harvest rather than
populations; conict and gradual collapse of
the population size.
their society ensued4.
In a number of other instances where peoples Read about BioCapacity and Ecological
have disappeared, this has been at least in Footprint.

References
Internet references accessed 07/12/2010
1. http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF16/1672.html When Reindeer Paradise Turned to
Purgatory, Article #1672 by Ned Rozell. Also http://dieoff.org/page80.htm
2. Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, Allen Lane 2005.
See review by J Porritt http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/jan/15/society
3. Ibid.
Brian M. Fagan, The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850, Basic Books 2000
Mackenzie Brown, The Fate of Greenlands Vikings, Archaeology, 28 February 2000.
4. Clive Ponting, A New Green History of the World, Vintage 2007

Glossary In-depth 2/2 2011 Population Matters