Has a malthusian-type catastrophe ocurred anywhere, with any species?
Is there an example easily replicated in an AP Environmental Science
class?

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 20 Oct 2005 07:52 PDT

Consider the Inca, Aztec, Maya and Easter Island civilizations.
Salinization drove farming out of southern Mesopotamia. Deforestation
is believed to have been the undoing of the Maya and Easter Island
peoples. In addition there were a number of instances in which
conquerors unknowingly or unwittingly infected the indigenous people
with small pox and other diseases bringing about the demise of the
very people who might have somehow aided their successful conquest
(through slavery or cooperation).

?In medieval Europe the extension of farmland into marginal areas
brought soil erosion and declining yields. Poor harvests led to
malnutrition, lowering resistance to disease and culminating in the
Black Death.?

??in 15th century Greenland, the Viking settlers could have survived
by abandoning their livestock-based economy and adopting Inuit
lifestyles, but the leap was too great and their communities died
out.?

AAAS ATLAS OF POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT
http://atlas.aaas.org/index.php?part=1&sec=theory

WIKIPEDIA
Malthusian catastrophe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

Models of these types of crises can be theorized in the form of graphs
and charts showing populations before and after their respective
critical Malthusian theory events.

Does this answer your question?

Tutuzdad-ga

Surely Malthus's dismal theory simply stated that over population
leads to starvation.

Nothing to do with exogenous disease (which made serfs valuable)

The Vikings were on marginal lands, and probably could not be bothered.

Malthus was probably totally wrong.
Those areas that are a bit 'dodgy' yield enormous amounts of food.

The areas that are naturally fecund produce people that have no
concept of 'winter' and are therefore irresponsible.

During the 100 years war it was not unusual to suspend hostilities for
the harvest season.

Personally I reckon that Malthus got it wrong, he forgot to introduce
social cohesiveness into the 'equation' - Japan disproves his thesis.