Easter island population dynamics pdf

Small and isolated societies of the past, such as the rapanui of easter island, constitute ideal laboratories for understanding the consequences of humandriven environmental degradation and associated crises. The analysis suggests regionspecific dynamics that include the abandonment of leeward. Why the population of easter island really died out. Modelling human population change on easter island far. Use a predatorprey model to explore trophic relationships and population dynamics. Our analysis reveals surprisingly rich dynamics including a degenerate hopf. In this paper we propose an alternative story involving noncooperative bargaining between clans to share the crop. However, in spite of their abundance, there are around 600 moai distributed throughout the whole island and 397 are in the rano raraku quarry, there are still plenty of unanswered questions regarding these stone giants. This paper presents a general equilibrium model of renewable resource and population dynamics related to the lotkavolterra predatorprey model, with man as the predator and the resource base as the prey. In 1995, unesco named easter island a world heritage site.

A reliable chronology is central to understanding the cultural, ecological, and demographic processes involved. Booming and crashing populations and easter island article pdf available in siam journal on applied mathematics 652. Tikopians managed to control population growth unlike easter. The population of the easter island according to census results. Easter islands human population may have reached 17,500 in its prime, far off early estimates of just 1,5003,000 people. Such behavior may more realistically depict the population dynamics of general ecosystems and illustrates the power of simple models to produce the kind of complex behavior that is ubiquitous in such systems.

Variation in rapa nui easter island land use indicates. Radiocarbon dates for the earliest stratigraphic layers at anakena, easter island, and analysis of previous radiocarbon dates imply that the island was colonized late, about 1200 a. S scientists says the legend about easter island s collapse is misleading and that the population was actually decimated by syphilis, smallpox and slavery. Explain how carrying capacity leads to a stabilization of population. Finding solutions to the entangled problems of human population growth, resource exploitation, ecosystem degradation, and biodiversity loss is. Deforestation led to soil erosion and falling agricultural yields between 1400 ad and the arrival of the. Experiment with an easter island population and resources model to explore the conditions that allow sustainable use of resources versus collapse of civilization.

Population limits on rapa nui easter island before european contact. So far, the economic literature on easter island has usually assumed that the dynam. Pdf the population of easter island grew steadily for some time and then. The authors simulate the economic history of easter island, modifying. Easter island rapa nui provides a model of humaninduced environmental degradation. Pdf booming and crashing populations and easter island. The authors apply the model to the rise and fall of easter island, showing that plausible parameter values generate a feast and famine pattern of cyclical adjustment in population and. Finding solutions to the entangled problems of human population growth, resource exploitation, ecosystem degradation, and biodiversity loss is considered humanitys grand challenge. Could institutional reform have saved easter island. We have used dates from hydrated obsidian artifacts recovered from habitation sites as a proxy for land use over time. Our paper evaluates a longstanding debate and examines whether the prehistoric population of rapa nui experienced a significant demographic collapse prior to european contact in ad 1722. It is quite isolated, making a study of the historical change in population a little easier.

The easter island tragedy has become an allegory for ecological catastrophe and a warning for the future. In the economic literature the collapse is usually attributed to irrational or myopic behaviors in the context of a fragile ecosystem. Sometimes you need to take a broad view to understand how you fit into the big picture, and at other times you need to take a closer look. Easter island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early rapa nui people. Easter island population model consider a problem that happened on easter island. Islanders, thus avoiding the overexploitation of resources.