The Tularosa Basin is a graben basin in the Basin and Range Province and within the Chihuahuan Desert , east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and West Texas , in the Southwestern United States .
85-570: The Tularosa Basin is located primarily in Otero County, New Mexico . It covers about 6,500 sq mi (16,800 km) (35% larger than Connecticut). It lies between the Sacramento Mountains to the east, and the San Andres and Oscura Mountains to the west. The basin stretches about 150 mi (240 km) north–south, and at its widest is about 60 mi (100 km) east-west. It
170-478: A barrier to improving the lives of poor people around the world. Humans and human culture itself are highly adaptable things that have overcome issues that seemed incomprehensible at the time before. It is not to say that carrying capacity is not something that should be considered and thought about, but it should be taken with some skepticism when presented as a concretely evidenced proof of something. Many biologists, ecologists, and social scientists have disposed of
255-614: A certain way. This was encapsulated by Paul Ehrlich and James Holdren's (1972) IPAT equation: environmental impact (I) = population (P) x affluence (A) x the technologies used to accommodate human demands (T). IPAT has found spectacular confirmation in recent decades within climate science, where the Kaya identity for explaining changes in CO 2 emissions is essentially IPAT with two technology factors broken out for ease of use. This suggests to technological optimists that new technological discoveries (or
340-520: A family was $ 46,210. Males had a median income of $ 32,939 versus $ 25,965 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 19,255. About 15.2% of families and 20.0% of the population were below the poverty line , including 28.0% of those under age 18 and 13.5% of those age 65 or over. School districts in the county include: While the southeast portion of the county is in the Alamogordo district, that district contracts education of residents there to
425-479: A female householder with no husband present, and 26.90% were non-families. 23.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.14. In the county, the population was spread out, with 29.50% under the age of 18, 9.30% from 18 to 24, 28.60% from 25 to 44, 21.00% from 45 to 64, and 11.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age
510-512: A few different processes in the past before finally being applied to population limits in the 1950s. The notion of carrying capacity for humans is covered by the notion of sustainable population . An early detailed examination of global limits was published in the 1972 book Limits to Growth , which has prompted follow-up commentary and analysis, including much criticism. A 2012 review in Nature by 22 international researchers expressed concerns that
595-424: A more complex model of how humans interact with their ecosystem needs to be used to understand them. Between 1900 and 2020, Earth's human population increased from 1.6 billion to 7.8 billion (a 390% increase). These successes greatly increased human resource demands, generating significant environmental degradation . The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) of 2005 was a massive, collaborative effort to assess
680-534: A no isn't based on any evidence. It's not based on any facts, it's only based on my gut feeling and my own intuition, and that's all I need". On September 6, 2022, Griffin became the first public official in more than a century to be debarred from office under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The debarment from holding public office is "for life". Stephanie Dubois,
765-495: A pasture. In order to market ones' meat products as 'biodynamic' , a lower Großvieheinheit of 1 to 1.5 (2.0) GV/ha is mandated, with some farms having an operating structure using only 0.5 to 0.8 GV/ha. The Food and Agriculture Organization has introduced three international units to measure carrying capacity: FAO Livestock Units for North America, FAO Livestock Units for sub-Saharan Africa, and Tropical Livestock Units. Another rougher and less precise method of determining
850-413: A population uses resources and generates wastes, with a focus on five main areas: carbon emissions (or carbon footprint ), land devoted to direct settlement, timber and paper use, food and fiber use, and seafood consumption. It converts these into per capita or total hectares used. On the supply side, national or global biocapacity represents the productivity of ecological assets in a particular nation or
935-429: A species would live in, and carrying capacity, the most animals which could be in the field) and Errington defining 'carrying capacity' as the number of animals above which predation would become 'heavy' (this definition has largely been rejected, including by Errington himself). The important and popular 1953 textbook on ecology by Eugene Odum , Fundamentals of Ecology , popularised the term in its modern meaning as
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#17328525467051020-485: A specific system's carrying capacity involves a limiting factor ; this may be available supplies of food or water , nesting areas, space, or the amount of waste that can be absorbed without degrading the environment and decreasing carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is a commonly used concept for biologists when trying to better understand biological populations and the factors which affect them. When addressing biological populations, carrying capacity can be seen as
1105-432: A stable dynamic equilibrium, taking into account extinction and colonization rates. In population biology , logistic growth assumes that population size fluctuates above and below an equilibrium value. Numerous authors have questioned the usefulness of the term when applied to actual wild populations. Although useful in theory and in laboratory experiments, carrying capacity as a method of measuring population limits in
1190-409: A substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth. The second of the four main findings is: The changes that have been made to ecosystems have contributed to substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development, but these gains have been achieved at growing costs in the form of the degradation of many ecosystem services, increased risks of nonlinear changes, and
1275-546: Is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico . As of the 2020 census , the population was 67,839. Its county seat is Alamogordo . Its southern boundary is the Texas state line. It is named for Miguel Antonio Otero , the territorial governor when the county was created. Otero County includes the Alamogordo Micropolitan Statistical Area. The western part of Otero County was handed over to
1360-485: Is a common stocking rate, in intensive agriculture , when grazing is supplemented with extra fodder , rates can be 5 to 10 GV/ha. In Europe average stocking rates vary depending on the country, in 2000 the Netherlands and Belgium had a very high rate of 3.82 GV/ha and 3.19 GV/ha respectively, surrounding countries have rates of around 1 to 1.5 GV/ha, and more southern European countries have lower rates, with Spain having
1445-615: Is a cow ('dam'), steer or ox ('bullock' in Australia), and if it weaning , pregnant or 'wet' (i.e. lactating ). In other parts of the world different units are used for calculating carrying capacities. In the United Kingdom the paddock is measured in LU, livestock units, although different schemes exist for this. New Zealand uses either LU, EE (ewe equivalents) or SU (stock units). In the US and Canada
1530-591: Is a function of how people live and the technology at their disposal. The two great economic revolutions that marked human history up to 1900—the agricultural and industrial revolutions—greatly increased the Earth's human carrying capacity, allowing human population to grow from 5 to 10 million people in 10,000 BCE to 1.5 billion in 1900. The immense technological improvements of the past 100 years—in applied chemistry, physics, computing, genetic engineering, and more—have further increased Earth's human carrying capacity, at least in
1615-573: Is arbitrary. This is due to choosing what to consider (e.g., whether or not to include plants that are not available every year), how to classify what is considered (e.g., classifying edible plants that are not usually eaten as food resources or not), and determining if caloric values or nutritional values are privileged. Additional layers to this for humans are their cultural differences in taste (e.g., some consume flying termites) and individual choices on what to invest their labor into (e.g., fishing vs. farming), both of which vary over time. This leads to
1700-491: Is enough to hinder afforestation in a natural area. Because different species have different ecological niches , with horses for example grazing short grass, cattle longer grass, and goats or deer preferring to browse shrubs, niche differentiation allows a terrain to have slightly higher carrying capacity for a mixed group of species, than it would if there were only one species involved. Some niche market schemes mandate lower stocking rates than can maximally be grazed on
1785-686: Is geologically considered part of the Rio Grande Rift zone, which widens there due to the slight clockwise rotation of the Colorado Plateau tectonic plate . Notable features of the basin include White Sands National Park , Oliver Lee Memorial State Park , the Carrizozo Malpais lava flow , Holloman Air Force Base , and the White Sands Missile Range with the historic Trinity nuclear test Site . Tularosa Creek flows westward into
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#17328525467051870-1022: Is in the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion , with the former Great Plains grassland habitat ecotones . Because of the closed nature of the basin, a number of unique ecological niches have developed. A significant number of endemic species are only found in the Tularosa Basin. These include the White Sands pupfish ( Cyprinodon tularosa ) and the Oscura Mountains chipmunk . While the Tularosa Basin lies primarily in New Mexican Otero County , it also extends into Doña Ana , Sierra , Lincoln , and Socorro Counties in New Mexico, and El Paso County in southwest Texas . Otero County, New Mexico Otero County ( Spanish: Condado de Otero )
1955-412: Is land and 14 square miles (36 km ) (0.2%) is water. It is the third-largest county in New Mexico by area. As of the 2000 census , there were 62,298 people, 22,984 households, and 16,801 families living in the county. The population density was 9 people per square mile (3.5 people/km ). There were 29,272 housing units at an average density of 4 per square mile (1.5/km ). The racial makeup of
2040-497: Is likely to occur. Ecological Footprint accounting measures the demands people make on nature and compares them to available supplies, for both individual countries and the world as a whole. Developed originally by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees , it has been refined and applied in a variety of contexts over the years by Global Footprint Network (GFN). On the demand side, the Ecological Footprint measures how fast
2125-497: Is maintained in a stable condition. Not only sheep are calculated in DSEs, the carrying capacity for other livestock is also calculated using this measure. A 200 kg weaned calf of a British style breed gaining 0.25 kg/day is 5.5DSE, but if the same weight of the same type of calf were gaining 0.75 kg/day, it would be measured at 8DSE. Cattle are not all the same, their DSEs can vary depending on breed, growth rates, weights, if it
2210-420: Is that ecosystems are not constant and change over time, therefore changing the resources available. Research has shown that sometimes the presence of human populations can increase local biodiversity , demonstrating that human habitation does not always lead to deforestation and decreased biodiversity. Another issue to consider when applying carrying capacity, especially to humans, is that measuring food resources
2295-453: Is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat , water , and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment 's maximal load, which in population ecology corresponds to the population equilibrium, when the number of deaths in a population equals the number of births (as well as immigration and emigration). Carrying capacity of
2380-663: The Dell City Independent School District of Dell City, Texas , due to the distances involved, as the mileage to Alamogordo from the former Cienega School was 100 miles (160 km) while the distance to Dell City is 20 miles (32 km). Tribal schools affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE): State-operated schools: Schools operated by foreign governments: Tertiary: Public libraries: 32°37′N 105°44′W / 32.62°N 105.73°W / 32.62; -105.73 Governance of
2465-516: The German Kapazitätsgrenze (capacity limit). This equation is a modification of the original Verhulst model: In this equation, the carrying capacity K , N ∗ {\displaystyle N^{*}} , is When the Verhulst model is plotted into a graph, the population change over time takes the form of a sigmoid curve , reaching its highest level at K . This is
2550-551: The United States Army as the US was preparing to enter World War II and eventually became part of White Sands Missile Range . This did not significantly hinder the growth of the county, whose population more than doubled in the 1950s. The county declared a state of emergency in April 2019 when the federal inspection stations on U.S. Route 70 and U.S. Route 54 were left unstaffed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection as part of
2635-412: The logistic growth curve and it is calculated with: where The logistic growth curve depicts how population growth rate and carrying capacity are inter-connected. As illustrated in the logistic growth curve model, when the population size is small, the population increases exponentially. However, as population size nears carrying capacity, the growth decreases and reaches zero at K . What determines
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2720-404: The poverty line , including 27.90% of those under age 18 and 12.80% of those age 65 or over. As of the 2010 census , there were 63,797 people, 24,464 households, and 16,641 families living in the county. The population density was 9.6 inhabitants per square mile (3.7/km ). There were 30,992 housing units at an average density of 4.7 per square mile (1.8/km ). The racial makeup of
2805-700: The Democratic candidate for Otero County District 2 Commission, was appointed by Governor Michelle Lynn Lujan Grisham and sworn in October 28, 2022. Dubois was facing Republican Amy Barela and the appointment took place in the final weeks of the election to replace Couy Griffin for the District 2, Otero County, New Mexico Commission Seat. The County leans heavily Republican. Barela won the November general election. Carrying capacity The carrying capacity of an environment
2890-539: The Earth may be "approaching a state shift" in which the biosphere may become less hospitable to human life and in which human carrying capacity may diminish. This concern that humanity may be passing beyond "tipping points" for safe use of the biosphere has increased in subsequent years. Recent estimates of Earth's carrying capacity run between two billion and four billion people, depending on how optimistic researchers are about international cooperation to solve collective action problems. In terms of population dynamics ,
2975-600: The MSY, populations dynamics imply that the total population will eventually decrease to zero. The actual carrying capacity of the environment may fluctuate in the real world, which means that practically, MSY may actually vary from year to year (annual sustainable yields and maximum average yield attempt to take this into account). Other similar concepts are optimum sustainable yield and maximum economic yield ; these are both harvest rates below MSY. These calculations are used to determine fishing quotas . Human carrying capacity
3060-650: The Sacramento Mountains) (1855–1896), Torreon Fort (near Lincoln ) (1850s), and Camp Comfort (1858–1859) at White Sands. Under US military protection, the first permanent settlement was established in 1862, when about 50 Hispanic farmers from the Rio Grande Valley moved to Tularosa . Efforts to control the Apache waned somewhat during the American Civil War and serious American settlement did not begin until
3145-638: The Tularosa Basin National Desalination Research Facility was established in the basin at Alamogordo , as a joint project of the Federal Bureau of Reclamation and Sandia National Laboratories . It is a national center for researching procedures to reduce brackish water creation and to develop new technologies for desalination as it is increasingly found in present-day inland basin aquifers with agricultural irrigation and potable water withdrawal demands. The Tularosa Basin
3230-504: The Tularosa Basin just north of the village of Tularosa . The distinct northwestern New Mexico Tularosa River is located in Catron County . Hydrologically, the Tularosa Basin is an endorheic basin , as no water flows out of it. The basin is closed to the north by Chupadera Mesa and to the south by the broad flat 4000-foot-elevation plain between the Franklin and Hueco Mountains , with
3315-407: The age of 18 living with them, 50.2% were married couples living together, 12.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 32.0% were non-families, and 27.1% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.05. The median age was 36.5 years. The median income for a household in the county was $ 39,615 and the median income for
3400-621: The atmosphere. If a region’s biocapacity exceeds its Ecological Footprint, it has a biocapacity reserve. According to the GFN's calculations, humanity has been using resources and generating wastes in excess of sustainability since approximately 1970: currently humanity use Earth's resources at approximately 170% of capacity. This implies that humanity is well over Earth's human carrying capacity for our current levels of affluence and technology use. According to Global Footprint Network: In 2024, [Earth Overshoot Day] fell on August 1. Earth Overshoot Day marks
3485-404: The basin, but said that was “far too heavy a burden for the range” - or beyond its carrying capacity . Severe drought followed for years, and the grassland pastures never recovered from the overgrazing , which continued in many instances for 75 years or more and caused top-soil erosion and desertification . Even within the White Sands Missile Range , where cattle grazing was eliminated in 1945,
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3570-426: The biological limits of a natural system related to population size in the 1950s. Neo-Malthusians and eugenicists popularised the use of the words to describe the number of people the Earth can support in the 1950s, although American biostatisticians Raymond Pearl and Lowell Reed had already applied it in these terms to human populations in the 1920s. Hadwen and Palmer (1923) defined carrying capacity as
3655-430: The carrying capacity of a paddock is simply by looking objectively at the condition of the herd. In Australia, the national standardized system for rating livestock conditions is done by body condition scoring (BCS). An animal in a very poor condition is scored with a BCS of 0, and an animal which is extremely healthy is scored at 5: animals may be scored between these two numbers in increments of 0.25. At least 25 animals of
3740-432: The condition of the pasture. In fisheries , carrying capacity is used in the formulae to calculate sustainable yields for fisheries management . The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) is defined as "the highest average catch that can be continuously taken from an exploited population (=stock) under average environmental conditions". MSY was originally calculated as half of the carrying capacity, but has been refined over
3825-524: The conventional boundary taken to be the New Mexico– Texas border. Surface water that does not evaporate or soak into the ground eventually accumulates at playas (intermittently dry lake beds), the largest of which is Lake Lucero , at 3888 feet elevation, at the southwest end of the White Sands dunes . The White Sands are a 710-km (275-mi) field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals. To
3910-464: The county is under a three-member county commission . In early 2021, Commissioner Couy Griffin , a former street preacher, was banned from entering the sizable Mescalero Apache Reservation in his own jurisdiction, because he participated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack . On January 19, the other two commissioners called for his resignation. In a bench trial on March 21, 2022, Griffin
3995-410: The county was 70.7% white, 6.7% American Indian, 3.5% black or African American, 1.2% Asian, 0.2% Pacific islander, 11.5% from other races, and 4.2% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 34.5% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 13.4% were German , 8.1% were English , 8.0% were Irish , and 4.4% were American . Of the 24,464 households, 33.3% had children under
4080-421: The county was 71.73% White , 3.92% Black or African American , 5.80% Native American , 1.17% Asian , 0.13% Pacific Islander , 11.67% from other races , and 3.60% from two or more races. 32.16% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 22,984 households, out of which 37.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.50% were married couples living together, 11.80% had
4165-443: The date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we are maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are operating in overshoot. The concept of ‘ ecological overshoot ’ can be seen as equivalent to exceeding human carrying capacity. According to the most recent calculations from Global Footprint Network, most of
4250-579: The density of stock that could be grazed for a definite period without damage to the range. It was first used in the context of wildlife management by the American Aldo Leopold in 1933, and a year later by the American Paul Lester Errington , a wetlands specialist. They used the term in different ways, Leopold largely in the sense of grazing animals (differentiating between a 'saturation level', an intrinsic level of density
4335-413: The deployment of existing ones) could continue to increase Earth's human carrying capacity, as it has in the past. Yet technology has unexpected side effects, as we have seen with stratospheric ozone depletion, excessive nitrogen deposition in the world's rivers and bays, and global climate change. This suggests that 8 billion people may be sustainable for a few generations, but not over the long term, and
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#17328525467054420-403: The effects from the 1890 -1945 period of overgrazing can still be seen nearly everywhere. Many areas that were historically known to be rich perennial grasslands are now xeric desert shrublands , with creosote bush—( Larrea tridentata ) predominating. Since surface water was unable to sustain the cattle herds, ranchers turned to groundwater , and the easily reachable aquifer of 'sweet water'
4505-461: The environment implies that the resources extraction is not above the rate of regeneration of the resources and the wastes generated are within the assimilating capacity of the environment. The effect of carrying capacity on population dynamics is modelled with a logistic function . Carrying capacity is applied to the maximum population an environment can support in ecology , agriculture and fisheries . The term carrying capacity has been applied to
4590-546: The environment is less useful as it sometimes oversimplifies the interactions between species. It is important for farmers to calculate the carrying capacity of their land so they can establish a sustainable stocking rate . For example, calculating the carrying capacity of a paddock in Australia is done in Dry Sheep Equivalents (DSEs). A single DSE is 50 kg Merino wether , dry ewe or non-pregnant ewe, which
4675-454: The equilibrium value of the logistic model of population growth. The specific reason why a population stops growing is known as a limiting or regulating factor . The difference between the birth rate and the death rate is the natural increase . If the population of a given organism is below the carrying capacity of a given environment, this environment could support a positive natural increase; should it find itself above that threshold
4760-495: The exacerbation of poverty for some groups of people. These problems, unless addressed, will substantially diminish the benefits that future generations obtain from ecosystems. According to the MEA, these unprecedented environmental changes threaten to reduce the Earth's long-term human carrying capacity. “The degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this [21st] century,” they write, serving as
4845-416: The huge dead zones at the mouths of many of world's great rivers, are a function of the scale of contemporary agriculture and the many other demands 8 billion people make on the planet. Scientists now speak of humanity exceeding or threatening to exceed 9 planetary boundaries for safe use of the biosphere. Humanity's unprecedented ecological impacts threaten to degrade the ecosystem services that people and
4930-531: The land or resources that are available. Nonetheless, it is possible to not be pessimistic as technological, social, and institutional adaptions could be accelerated, especially in a time of need, to solve problems, or in this case, increase carrying capacity. There are also of course resources on this Earth that are limited that most certainly will run out if overused or used without proper oversight/checks and balances. If things are left without remaining checked then overconsumption and exploitation of land and resources
5015-611: The late 1870s, when settlers and cattle ranchers from Texas began moving into the basin. In 1969, the Gemsbok was introduced. The native grasslands in the Tularosa Basin were able to support large herds in the wet years of the 1880s. When the Americans first started running cattle, in some places, the native perennial bunchgrasses grew 'as high as a horse’s shoulder' - 1.0–2.5 m (3.3–8.2 ft) depending on species. One cowboy estimated in 1889 that 85,000 head were mustered within
5100-400: The lowest rate of 0.44 GV/ha. This system can also be applied to natural areas. Grazing megaherbivores at roughly 1 GV/ha is considered sustainable in central European grasslands, although this varies widely depending on many factors. In ecology it is theoretically (i.e. cyclic succession , patch dynamics , Megaherbivorenhypothese ) taken that a grazing pressure of 0.3 GV/ha by wildlife
5185-713: The need to determine whether or not to include all food resources or only those the population considered will consume. Carrying capacity measurements over large areas also assumes homogeneity in the resources available but this does not account for how resources and access to them can greatly vary within regions and populations. They also assume that the populations in the region only rely on that region’s resources even though humans exchange resources with others from other regions and there are few, if any, isolated populations. Variations in standards of living which directly impact resource consumption are also not taken into account. These issues show that while there are limits to resources,
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#17328525467055270-520: The north of Lake Lucero are extensive alkali flats , which produce additional gypsum for wind deposition on the dunes. The White Sands fossil footprints in the Tularosa Basin are estimated by the National Park Service to be 21 000 to 23 000 years old and include footprints possibly showing humans stalking a giant sloth . The footprints are located at the shore of an ice age era lake. As of November 2021, 61 fossil footprints have been found at
5355-1107: The planetary boundaries framework defines “a safe operating space for humanity based on the intrinsic biophysical processes that regulate the stability of the Earth system.” Human civilization has evolved in the relative stability of the Holocene epoch; crossing planetary boundaries for safe levels of atmospheric carbon, ocean acidity, or one of the other stated boundaries could send the global ecosystem spiraling into novel conditions that are less hospitable to life—possibly reducing global human carrying capacity. This framework, developed in an article published in 2009 in Nature and then updated in two articles published in 2015 in Science and in 2018 in PNAS , identifies nine stressors of planetary support systems that need to stay within critical limits to preserve stable and safe biospheric conditions (see figure below). Climate change and biodiversity loss are seen as especially crucial, since on their own, they could push
5440-435: The population at its maximum recruitment . However, annual fishing can be seen as a modification of r in the equation -i.e. the environment has been modified, which means that the population size at equilibrium with annual fishing is slightly below what K would be without it. Note that mathematically and in practical terms, MSY is problematic. If mistakes are made and even a tiny amount of fish are harvested each year above
5525-424: The population typically decreases. Thus, the carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals of a species that an environment can support in long run. Population size decreases above carrying capacity due to a range of factors depending on the species concerned, but can include insufficient space , food supply , or sunlight . The carrying capacity of an environment varies for different species. In
5610-510: The region’s biocapacity, that region runs a biocapacity deficit. Its demand for the goods and services that its land and seas can provide—fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, wood, cotton for clothing, and carbon dioxide absorption—exceeds what the region’s ecosystems can regenerate. In more popular communications, this is called “an ecological deficit.” A region in ecological deficit meets demand by importing, liquidating its own ecological assets (such as overfishing), and/or emitting carbon dioxide into
5695-422: The rest of life depend on—potentially decreasing Earth's human carrying capacity. The signs that we have crossed this threshold are increasing. The fact that degrading Earth's essential services is obviously possible, and happening in some cases, suggests that 8 billion people may be above Earth's human carrying capacity. But human carrying capacity is always a function of a certain number of people living
5780-537: The results of the local 2022 primary election on June 7, 2022. In response, the New Mexico Secretary of State filed a lawsuit and writ of mandamus against the commissioners for their refusal. By Friday June 17, 2022, two of the three commissioners agreed to certify the election results, which defused the crisis. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 6,628 square miles (17,170 km ), of which 6,613 square miles (17,130 km )
5865-402: The same type must be scored to provide a statistically representative number, and scoring must take place monthly -if the average falls, this may be due to a stocking rate above the paddock's carrying capacity or too little fodder. This method is less direct for determining stocking rates than looking at the pasture itself, because the changes in the condition of the stock may lag behind changes in
5950-540: The short term. Without the Haber-Bosch process for fixing nitrogen, modern agriculture could not support 8 billion people. Without the Green Revolution of the 1950s and 60s, famine might have culled large numbers of people in poorer countries during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Recent technological successes, however, have come at grave environmental costs. Climate change , ocean acidification, and
6035-514: The site. When the Spanish arrived in the Tularosa Basin, they found springs and small streams coming from the Sacramento Mountains that fed a relatively lush grassland on the eastern side of the basin. While the Spanish tried some sheep ranching and some mining, the area remained firmly under Apache control until the 1850s, when the United States established its military presence at Fort Stanton (in
6120-421: The standard ecological algebra as illustrated in the simplified Verhulst model of population dynamics , carrying capacity is represented by the constant K : where Thus, the equation relates the growth rate of the population N to the current population size, incorporating the effect of the two constant parameters r and K . (Note that decrease is negative growth.) The choice of the letter K came from
6205-408: The state of Earth's ecosystems, involving more than 1,300 experts worldwide. Their first two of four main findings were the following. The first finding is: Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber, and fuel. This has resulted in
6290-511: The temporary closure of all six checkpoints in the El Paso Sector, which covers West Texas and New Mexico. The county was concerned about the possibility of illegal narcotics flowing north unchecked since the checkpoint agents had been shifted to the border to help process migrant asylum-seekers. The inspection stations reopened August 5, 2019. On Monday June 13, 2022, the county commissioners attracted nationwide attention by refusing to certify
6375-450: The term 'carrying capacity' was not explicitly used in 1838 by the Belgian mathematician Pierre François Verhulst when he first published his equations based on research on modelling population growth. The origins of the term "carrying capacity" are uncertain, with sources variously stating that it was originally used "in the context of international shipping " in the 1840s, or that it
6460-479: The term altogether due to the generalizations that are made that gloss over the complexity of interactions that take place on the micro and macro level. Carrying capacity in a human environment is subject to change at any time due to the highly adaptable nature of human society and culture. If resources, time, and energy are put into an issue, there very well may be a solution that exposes itself. This also should not be used as an excuse to overexploit or take advantage of
6545-462: The term ‘carrying capacity’ implies a population that is sustainable indefinitely. It is possible, too, that efforts to anticipate and manage the impacts of powerful new technologies, or to divide up the efforts needed to keep global ecological impacts within sustainable bounds among more than 200 nations all pursuing their own self-interest, may prove too complicated to achieve over the long haul. One issue with applying carrying capacity to any species
6630-466: The traditional system uses animal units (AU). A French/Swiss unit is Unité de Gros Bétail (UGB). In some European countries such as Switzerland the pasture ( alm or alp ) is traditionally measured in Stoß , with one Stoß equaling four Füße (feet). A more modern European system is Großvieheinheit (GV or GVE), corresponding to 500 kg in liveweight of cattle. In extensive agriculture 2 GV/ha
6715-425: The world as a whole; this includes “cropland, grazing land, forest land, fishing grounds, and built-up land.” Again the various metrics to capture biocapacity are translated into the single term of hectares of available land. As Global Footprint Network (GFN) states: Each city, state or nation’s Ecological Footprint can be compared to its biocapacity, or that of the world. If a population’s Ecological Footprint exceeds
6800-558: The world's residents live in countries in ecological overshoot (see the map on the right). This includes countries with dense populations (such as China, India, and the Philippines), countries with high per capita consumption and resource use (France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia), and countries with both high per capita consumption and large numbers of people (Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States). According to its developers,
6885-445: The years, now being seen as roughly 30% of the population, depending on the species or population. Because the population of a species which is brought below its carrying capacity due to fishing will find itself in the exponential phase of growth, as seen in the Verhulst model, the harvesting of an amount of fish at or below MSY is a surplus yield which can be sustainably harvested without reducing population size at equilibrium, keeping
6970-415: Was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 99.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.80 males. The median income for a household in the county was $ 30,861, and the median income for a family was $ 34,781. Males had a median income of $ 27,657 versus $ 18,470 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 14,345. About 15.60% of families and 19.30% of the population were below
7055-436: Was convicted of trespassing, but acquitted on the more serious charge of disorderly conduct. In 2022, the county commission refused to certify primary election results. After a court order from the New Mexico state Supreme Court, the commission eventually did certify the election results, but Commissioner Griffin continued with his refusal, voting "No". Commissioner Griffin justified his refusal by saying, "My vote to just remain
7140-559: Was first used during 19th-century laboratory experiments with micro-organisms. A 2008 review finds the first use of the term in English was an 1845 report by the US Secretary of State to the US Senate . It then became a term used generally in biology in the 1870s, being most developed in wildlife and livestock management in the early 1900s. It had become a staple term in ecology used to define
7225-419: Was pumped out and depleted from under the basin, leaving only brackish water . Applying the groundwater to the surface resulted in additional salts being dissolved and transported back down by groundwater recharge into the aquifer, increasing its salinity . By 2000, it became clear that salts in the aquifer needed to be significantly reduced if existing levels of water use were to continue. Therefore, in 2004,
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