Quiz 7 4/13 18 min 

A large human population, both globally and within individual countries, has been a concern since 
the time of Thomas Malthus. 

(a) Country X is 95% desert. The government of Country X is concerned about not having enough 
arable land (land capable of being used to grow crops) in the country to produce the food needed to 
feed its population without increasing food imports. One government official proposes a project to 
irrigate large areas of the desert to convert these areas of desert to agricultural fields. 

(i) Describe one potential benefit of this proposed project. 

By converting the deserts to agriculture fields there will be an increased amount of arable land and 
food production which will ​decrease hunger problems or food shortages​ in the country. 

(ii) Describe one potential negative consequence of this proposed project. 

As the lands in the desert are used for agriculture, the native plant species who are adapted to the 
dry desert environment and natives animals who use the bare sand as a protection from their 
predators will lose their habitat and result in a ​decrease of native species population​. 
(b) County X is experiencing rapid population growth. 

(i) Propose one solution for slowing the population growth rate in Country X. 

Country X could ​provide free contraception​ to each family and educate the public of contraception 
use to decrease their fertility rate and slow the population growth.  

(ii) Explain how the solution in (i) would also address Country X’s concern about having enough 
arable land to feed its population. 
By increased contraception use there will​ be less people per family​ thus decreasing the need to 
produce more food to sustain large amounts of people in the country. This will eliminate food 
shortages problems as the population growth will slow down and decrease the amount of arable 
land needed.  
 
 
After reading the following excerpt from an article about the interrelationships among organisms in 
an oak forest, answer parts (a), (b), and (c), which follow. 

Chain Reactions Linking Acorns to Gypsy Moth Outbreaks and Lyme Disease Risk 

Oak trees (​ Quercus spp​.) produce large autumnal acorn crops every two to five years, and produce 
few or no acorns during intervening years. Acorns are a critical food for white-footed mice 
(​Peromyscus leucopus​). Mice are important predators of thepupal sta ge of the gypsy moth 
(​Lymantria dispar​). This introduced insect periodically undergoes outbreaks that defoliate millions of 
hectares of oak forests, decreasing tree growth, survival, and acorn crop production. An abundance 
of acorns provides food for white-tailed deer (​Odocoileus virginianus​). Mice and deer are the primary 
hosts of the black-legged tick (I​xodes scapularis​), which carries Lyme disease. 

a. Design a controlled experiment that tests the relationship between acorn production and 
gypsy moth population. Include the hypothesis that the experiment tests. 

Hypothesis: The​ hypothesis f​ or this experiment will be if there is an increased number of 
oak trees that produce acorns then there will be decreased abundance of the gypsy moth 
population.  

independent variable ​will be the different number of oak trees present in different plots of 
lands. The ​dependent variable​ will be the population count of gypsy moth populations in 
each land. The ​control group w ​ ill be the land with no oak trees present which provides no 
acron to the ecosystem. There will be 4 different plots of land with the same area but with 
different oak tree populations. One land will have no oak trees present, the other will have 10, 
20, and 40 oak trees respectively. The amount of gypsy moth population will be counted 
after a one month period in each land. The experiment will be conducted ​during the autumn 
time o​ f years that oak trees produce acorns.  

b. Briefly describe a strategy that uses integrated pest management for the control of the 
black-legged tick population. 

As mice and deers are the primary hosts of the black-legged tick, elimination of the host 
population will decrease the tick population as they will no longer have a habitat for 
protection. This can be achieved by e
​ ncouraging hunting activities ​of deers by ​giving tax 
credits to individuals who have more deer hunts​ from the ecosystem.