A Strong Partner for Sustainable Development

Module
In
GEE 4

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

College of Business and

Management BPA 3-B, BPA 3-D
Module No. 3
 POPULATION

2nd Semester 2020-2021

Danica D. Talimbay
John Paul C. Navarro
Instructor 1

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

Table of Contents
INSTRUCTION TO THE USER........................................................................................................ 4
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 1 Population and Hydrology........................................................................................ 5
Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Learning Outcomes .......................................................................................................................... 6
Pre-test............................................................................................................................................. 6
Lesson 1......................................................................................................................................... 8
A. Learning Outcomes................................................................................................................... 8 B.
Time Allotment......................................................................................................................... 8 C.
Discussion................................................................................................................................. 8 D.
Activities/Exercises ................................................................................................................ 15 E.
Evaluation/Post-test .............................................................................................................. 15
References ................................................................................................................................. 17

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

INSTRUCTION TO THE USER

This module would provide you an educational experience while

independently accomplishing the task at your own pace or time. It aims as
well to ensure that learning is unhampered by health and other challenges. It
covers the topic about Population.

Reminders in using this module:

1. Keep this material neat and intact.

2. Answer the pretest first to measure what you know and what to be
learned about the topic discussed in this module.
3. Accomplish the activities and exercises as aids and reinforcement for
 better understanding of the lessons.
4. Answer the post-test to evaluate your learning.
5. Do not take pictures in any parts of this module nor post it to social
media platforms.
6. Value this module for your own learning by heartily and honestly
answering and doing the exercises and activities. Time and effort were
spent in the preparation in order that learning will still continue
amidst this Covid-19 pandemic.
7. Observe health protocols:
wear mask, sanitize and
maintain physical distancing.

Hi! I’m Blue Bee,

your WPU Mascot.

Welcome to Western Philippines University!

Shape your dreams with quality learning

experience.

STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY!

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

INTRODUCTION

This module will serve as an alternative learning material to the usual way of
classroom teaching and learning delivery. The instructor will facilitate and explain
the module to the students to achieve its expected learning outcomes, activities and
to ensure that they will learn amidst of pandemic.

This material discusses one of the essential learning competencies of

Environmental Science. It includes different topics that will help you understand
population better. It will teach you about the characteristics of population and its
growth. It will also teach you essential learning about the distribution, density, and
population size at well as patterns of population distribution.
 Through your cooperation in this kind of flexible learning delivery, understanding
about the Environmental Science is very much possible. It is expected that after using
this module you will become more concerned with the environment.

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

Chapter 3 Population

Overview

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the chapter the students are expected to:

1. define population;
2. identify the factors that affect population growth; and
3. internalize the effect of population explosion and its effect on the
environment.

Pre-test
Multiple Choice. Read and understand each statement/question and then
choose the best possible answer from the given options.
1. What do we call the distinct group of individuals or group of people with
common characteristics?
a. density
b. population
c. dispersion
d. distribution
2. The number of persons or individuals in a certain area is called?
a. mass
b. crowd
c. density
d. population
3. Every year, population count goes higher and higher, what do we call the
increase in number of individuals in a population?
a. size
b. distribution
c. growth
d. all of the above
4. Every population has its certain number. What do we call this number?
a. growth
b. size
c. distribution
d. population
5. Mary lives in a mountainous area while John lives in a coastal area. In this
case, we can notice that they live in different patterns. What do we call this
pattern?
a. population density
b. population distribution
c. total population
d. geological areas
6. The number of times people die in a population is measured in a certain
rate. What do we call this this death rate?
a. fatality
b. mortality

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

c. natality
d. population dispersion
7. The proportion of individuals in each age group is called?
a. age pyramid
b. age bracket
c. age distribution
d. age structure
8. Population increases because someone/somebody is being born almost
every second around the globe. What is the cause of this increase in
population?
a. mortality
b. premature pregnancy
c. natality
d. none of the above
9. A spatial pattern of individuals in a population relative to one another.
a. population growth
b. spatial distribution
c. population dispersion
 d. population density
10. Age structure can be shown/represented is a model
called? a. age graph
b. age pyramid
c. age pie
d. none of the above

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

Lesson 1
A. Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. define population;
2. identify the factors that affect population growth; and
3. internalize the effect of population explosion and its effect on the
environment.

B. Time Allotment
3 hours

C. Discussion

POPULATION (What Is Population?)

 A

population is a
distinct group of individuals,
whether that group
comprises a nation or a
group of people with a
common characteristic. In
statistics, a population is the
pool of individuals from
which a statistical sample is
drawn for a study. Thus, any
selection of individuals T
his Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
grouped together by a common feature can be said to be a

population. CHARACTERISTICS OF POPULATION

1. Population Size and Density

Total size is generally expressed as the number of indi-viduals in

a population.

Population density is defined as the numbers of individuals per

unit area or per unit volume of environment. Larger organisms as trees
may be expressed as 100 trees per hectare, whereas smaller ones like
phytoplankton (an algae) as 1 million cells per cubic meter of water.

In terms of weight, it may be 50 kilograms of fish per hectare of

water surface. Density may be numerical density (number of individuals
per unit area or volume) when the size of individuals in the population
is relatively uniform, as mammals, birds or insects or biomass density

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(biomass per unit area or volume) when the size of individuals is
variable such as trees.

Since, the patterns of dispersion of organisms in nature are

different population density is also differentiated into crude density and
ecological density.
 a. Crude density: It is the density (number or biomass) per
unit total space. Ecological density or specific or economic
density: It is the density (number or biomass) per unit of
habitat space i.e., available area or volume that can actually
be colonized by the population.

This distinction becomes important due to the fact that

organisms in nature grow generally clumped into groups and rarely as
uniformly distributed. For example, in plant species like Cassia tora,
Oplismemis burmanni, etc, individuals are found more crowded in
shady patches and few in other parts of some area. Thus, density
calculated in total area (shady as well as exposed) would be crude
density, whereas the density value for only shady area (where the plants
actually grow) would be ecological density.

2. Population dispersion or spatial distribution

Dispersion is the spatial pattern of individuals in a population

relative to one another. In nature, due to various biotic interactions and
influence of abiotic factors, the following three basic population
distributions can be observed:

a. Regular dispersion: Here the individuals are more or less

spaced at equal distance from one another. This is rare in
nature but in common is cropland. Animals with territorial
behavior tend towards this dispersion.

b. Random dispersion: Here the position of one individual is

unrelated to the positions of its neighbors. This is also
relatively rare in nature.

c. Clumped dispersion: Most populations exhibit this

dispersion to some extent, with individuals aggregated into
patches interspersed with no or few individuals. Such
aggregations may result from social aggregations, such as
family groups or may be due to certain patches of the
environment being more favorable for the population
concerned.

3. Age structure

In most types of populations, individuals are of different age. The

proportion of individuals in each age group is called age structure of
that population. The ratio of the various age groups in a population

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determines the current reproductive status of the population, thus
anticipating its future. From an ecological view point there are three
major ecological ages in any population. These are, pre-reproductive,
reproductive and post reproductive. The relative duration of these age
groups in proportion to the life span varies greatly with different
organisms.

Age pyramid. The model representing geometrically the

proportions of different age groups in the population of any organism is
called age pyramid. According to Bodenheimer (1938), there are
 following three basic types of age pyramids.

a. A pyramid with a broad base (or triangular structure): It

indicates a high percentage of young individuals. In rapidly
growing young populations birth rate is high and population
growth may be exponential as in yeasty house fly,
Paramecium, etc. Under such conditions, each successive
generation will be more numerous than the preceding one,
and thus a pyramid with a broad base would result (Fig. A).

b. Bell-Shaped Polygon: It indicates a stationary population

having an equal number of young and middle-aged
individuals. As the growth rate becomes slow and stable, i.e.,
the pre-reproductive and reproductive age groups become
more or less equal in size, post-reproductive group remaining
as the smallest (Fig. B).

c. An urn-shaped structure: It indicates a low percentage of

young individuals and shows a declining population. Such an
un-shaped figure is obtained when the birth rate is drastically
reduced the pre-reproductive group dwindles in proportion to
the other two age groups of the population.

4. Natality (birth rate)

Population increases because of natality. It is simply a broader

term covering the production of new individuals by birth, hatching, by
fission, etc. The natality rate may be expressed as the number of
organisms born per female per unit time. In human population, the
natality rate is equivalent to the birth-rate. There are distinguished two
types of natality.

a. Maximum natality: Also called as absolute or potential or

physiological natality, it is the theoretical maximum production
of new individuals under ideal conditions which means that there
are no ecological limiting factors and that reproduction is limited
only by physiological factors. It is a constant for a given
population. This is also called fecundity rate.

b. Ecological natality: Also called realized natality or simply natality,

it is the population increase under an actual, existing specific

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condition. Thus, it takes into account all possible existing
environmental conditions. This is also designated as fertility rate.

Further, the rate at which females produce offspring is

determined by the following three population characteristics:

a. Clutch size or the number of young produced on each occasion.

b. The time between one reproductive event and the next and c.
The age of first reproduction.

Thus, natality usually increase with the period of maturity and

then falls again as the organism gets older.
5. Mortality (death rate)

Mortality means the rate of death of individuals in the

population. Like natality, mortality may be of following types:

a. Minimum mortality: Also called specific or potential mortality, it

represents the theo-retical minimum loss under ideal or non-
limiting conditions. It is a constant for a population.

b. Ecological or realized mortality: It is the actual loss of individuals

under a given environmental condition. Ecological mortality is not
constant for a population and varies with population and
environmental conditions, such as predation, disease and other
ecological haz-ards.

Vital index and survivorship curves: A birth-death ratio (100 x

births/deaths) is called vital index. For a population, the surviving
individuals are more significant for a population than the dead ones.
The survival rates are generally expressed by survivorship curves.

Biotic Potential: Each population has the inherent power to grow.

When the environment is unlimited, the specific growth rate (i.e., the
population growth rate per individual) becomes constant and maximum
for the existing conditions. The value of the growth rate under these
favorable conditions is maximal, is characteristics of a particular
population age structure, and is a single index of the inherent power of a
population to grow.

It may be designated by the symbol r which is the exponent in the

differential equation for population growth in an unlimited
environment under specific physical conditions. The index r is actually
the difference between the instantaneous specific natality rate and the
instantaneous specific death rate and may thus be expressed:

r=b–d

The Overall population growth rate under unlimited

environmental conditions (r) depends on the age composition and the

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

specific growth rates due to reproduction of component age groups.
Thus, there may be several values of r for a species depending upon
population structure. When a stationary and stable age distribution
exists, the specific growth rate is called the intrinsic rate of natural
increase or r max. The maximum value of r is often called by the less
specific but widely used expression biotic potential or reproductive
potential.

Chapman (1928) coined the term biotic potential to designate

maximum reproductive power. He defined it as “the inherent property
of an organism to reproduce to survive, i.e., to increase in numbers. It is
a sort of algebraic sum of the number of young produced at each
reproduction, the number of reproductions in a given period of time, the
sex ratio and their general ability to survive under given physical
conditions.” Thus, with the term of biotic potential, one is able to put
together natality, mortality and age distribution.
 But under natural conditions, this is a rare phenomenon, since
environmental conditions do not permit unlimited growth of any
population. Its size is kept under natural check.

Life tables: Species differ widely in the number of young produced

each year, in the average age to which they live and in their average rate
of mortality. When sufficient facts about a species are known, a life
table that tabulates the vital statistics of mortality and life expectancy
for each group in the population may be formulated.

In each table there are columns for age of individuals; numbers

surviving to each age; the number is dying in each age group; the
proportion dying from the previous age category; fertility rate; and the
number of young born by each age group. The information obtained
from these figures provides the net reproductive rate of the population
i.e., offspring left by each individual.

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, DENSITY, AND

SIZE Population Distribution

Population distribution means the pattern of where people live.

World population distribution is uneven. Places which are sparsely
populated contain few people. Places which are densely populated contain
many people. Sparsely populated places tend to be difficult places to live.
These are usually places with hostile environments.

The country of the Philippines is an archipelago made up of over

7,000 islands that total 115,831 square miles (300,000 square kilometers).
Most of the islands are pretty small, but a few larger ones like Luzon and
Mindanao account for a large portion of the surface area.

The islands are broken up into three categories: Luzon, Visayas, and
Mindanao - which are basically north, central and south, respectively.
While

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

some islands are much more populated than others, the overall population
density of the Philippines is 939 people per square mile (363 people per
square kilometer).

Population Density

Population density is an often reported and commonly compared

statistic for places around the world. Population density is the measure of
the number of people per unit area, commonly represented as people per
square mile (or square kilometer).

The population density of the planet (including all land area) is

about 38 people per square mile (57 per sq km). The population density of
the United States is approximately 87.4 people per square mile, according
to the 2010 U.S. Census.

Computing Population Density

 To determine an area's population density, divide an area's total
population by the land area in square miles (or square kilometers).

For example, Canada's population of 35.6 million (July 2017

estimated by the CIA World Factbook), divided by the land area of
3,855,103 square miles (9,984,670 sq km) yields a density of 9.24 people
per square mile.

Although this number would seem to indicate that 9.24 people live
on each square mile of Canadian land area, the density within the country
varies dramatically; a vast majority lives in the southern part of the
country. Density is only a raw gauge to measure a population's
disbursement across the land.

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

Density can be computed for any area, as long as one knows the size
of the land area and the population within that area. The population
density of cities, states, entire continents, and even the world can be
computed.
Philippines Population Density Map (c)worldpopulationreview.om

Population Size

Population size is the number of individuals in a population. For

example, a population of insects might consist of 100 individual insects, or
many more. Population size influences the chances of a species surviving or
going extinct. Generally, very small populations are at greatest risk of
extinction. However, the size of a population may be less important than its
density.

POPULATION GROWTH

Population growth is the increase in the number of individuals in a

population. Global human population growth amounts to around 83
million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1
billion in 1800 to 7.8 billion in 2020. The UN projected population to keep
growing, and estimates have put the total population at 8.6 billion by mid-
2030, 9.8 billion by mid-2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. However, some
academics outside the UN have increasingly developed human population
models that account for additional downward pressures on population
growth; in such a scenario population would peak before 2100.

World human population has been growing since the end of the
Black Death, around the year 1350. A mix of technological advancement
that improved agricultural productivity and sanitation and medical

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

advancement that reduced mortality have caused a exponential population
growth. In some geographies, this has slowed through the process called
the demographic transition, where many nations with high standards of
living have seen a significant slowing of population growth. This is in direct
contrast with less developed contexts, where population growth is still
happening.

Population growth alongside overconsumption is a key driver of

environmental concerns, such as biodiversity loss and climate change, due
 to resource-intensive human development that exceed planetary
boundaries. International policy focused on mitigating the impact of
human population growth is concentrated in the Sustainable Development
Goals which seek to improve the standard of living globally while reducing
the impact of society on the environment (Wikipedia.com)

D. Activities/Exercises
Concept Map: Everything is Connected (50 points). Create a
concept map depicting many factors in human society and the natural
environment are interdependent. Write 7 Billion People and Growing as
the main idea. Below is an example.

E. Evaluation/Post-test
Multiple Choice. Read and understand each statements/question and
then choose the best possible answer from the given options.

1. What do we call the distinct group of individuals or group of people with

common characteristics?
a. density
b. population
c. dispersion
d. distribution
2. The number of persons or individuals in a certain area is called?
a. mass

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

b. crowd
c. density
d. population
3. Every year, population count goes higher and higher, what do we call the
increase in number of individuals in a population?
a. size
b. distribution
c. growth
d. all of the above
4. Every population has its certain number. What do we call this number?
a. growth
 b. size
c. distribution
d. population
5. Mary lives in a mountainous area while John lives in a coastal area. In
this case, we can notice that they live in different patterns. What do we
call this pattern?
a. population density
b. population distribution
c. total population
d. geological areas
6. The number of times people die in a population is measured in a certain
rate. What do we call this this rate?
a. fatality
b. mortality
c. natality
d. population dispersion
7. The proportion of individuals in each age group is called?
a. age pyramid
b. age bracket
c. age distribution
d. age structure
8. Population increases because someone/somebody is being born almost
every second around the globe. What is the cause of this increase in
population?
a. mortality
b. premature pregnancy
c. natality
d. none of the above
9. A spatial pattern of individuals in a population relative to one another.
a. population growth
b. spatial distribution
c. population dispersion
d. population density
10. Age structure can be shown/represented is a model
called? a. age graph
b. age pyramid
c. age pie graph
d. none of the above

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

References
Momoh, O. (2021). "Population". Accessed
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/population.asp

Mondal, P. "Population Characteristics: 5 Important Characteristics of Population".

Accessed https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/pollution/population characteristics-
5-important-characteristics-of-population/23294

www.worldpopulationreview.com (2021). "Philippines Population." Accessed

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/philippines-population
Rosenberg, M. (2019). "Population Density Information and Statistics". Accessed
https://www.thoughtco.com/population-density-overview-1435467

www.bio.libretexts.org (2021). "Population Size, Density, and Distribution".

Accessed
https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/
Book:_Introductory_Biology_(CK
12)/06:_Ecology/6.17:_Population_Size_Density_and_Distribution#:~:text
= Population%20Size.%20Population%20size%20is%20the%20number
%20of,c hances%20of%20a%20species%20surviving%20or%20going
%20extinct.

Wikipedia (2021) "Population Growth". Accessed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_growth

WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)

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Vision 2020
WPU: the leading knowledge center for sustainable
development of West Philippines and beyond.
 Mission
WPU commits to develop quality human resource and green
technologies for a dynamic economy and sustainable
development through relevant instruction,
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WPU-QSF-ACAD-82A Rev. 00 (09.15.20)