1. Consider this definition of overpopulation: "...where there are more people than can live on the earth in comfort, happiness, and health, and still leave the world a fit place for future generations." 1
a. Do comfort and happiness mean the typical standard of living seen in developed countries or in less-developed countries? Should everyone in the world have the same standard of living? Why or why not?
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b. What standard of health is acceptable for the developed countries? Whose responsibility is it to achieve this end?
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c. Should citizens and private industry work to find ways to make the world an ecologically fit place for future generations? Why?
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d. When discussing overpopulation, should we think in terms of the world, the country, or the area?
Answer1From George Morris, 1973. Overpopulation: Everyone's Baby. London: Priory Press Limited, p. 24.
2. There are two types of competition: scramble competition, in which all organisms have equal access to resources, and contest competition, in which a contest decides which organism will have access to resources.
a. When a large population of blowfly larvae are provided with a limited amount of food in the laboratory, most larvae die from lack of food. Which type of competition most likely took place? Why?
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b. In a baboon troop, certain males receive food and mate first. These males receive this treatment because they successfully fought other males. Which type of competition occurred? Why?
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c. In nature, blowflies are not restricted to a particular territory, although baboons are. How does this information help to explain why scramble competition is seen in the one species and contest competition is seen in the other?
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3. Sometimes it is difficult to determine what type of symbiotic relationship organisms have.
a. In lichens, fungal hyphae characteristically penetrate algal cells via specialized organs called haustoria. What type of symbiotic relationship is suggested by this information? Why?
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b. In lichens, algae are surrounded and mechanically protected by the meshwork of fungal hyphae, which absorb water and minerals from the substrate. If the algae benefit from this arrangement, what type of relationship do the two organisms have? Why?
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c. Both the fungi and the algae found in a lichen can exist separately. Is this counter to a parasitic relationship, but consistent with a mutualistic one?
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