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MODELLING HUMAN CARRYING CAPACITY AS A FUNCTION OF FOOD AVAILABILITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2020

DINY ZULKARNAEN
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia; e-mail: [email protected]. Department of Mathematics, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Gunung Djati, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia; e-mail: [email protected].
MARIANITO R. RODRIGO*
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia; e-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

We assume that human carrying capacity is determined by food availability. We propose three classes of human population dynamical models of logistic type, where the carrying capacity is a function of the food production index. We also employ an integration-based parameter estimation technique to derive explicit formulas for the model parameters. Using actual population and food production index data, numerical simulations of our models suggest that an increase in food availability implies an increase in carrying capacity, but the carrying capacity is “self-limiting” and does not increase indefinitely.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Australian Mathematical Society 2020

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