Question

5. How might the carrying capacity for people in the United States change if we ate more plant products than animal products? Explain in terms of energy efficiency.
6. How might global warming cause the release of CO₂from boreal forest soils? How might that differ from tropical forest soils?

Answer 1

There are several factors may be affect the carrying capacity of an individual. However, the food is the main factor to determine the carrying capacity. In view of energy efficiancy which food is better for increase carrying capacity of an individual? Both plant products and animal product having much energy and calories include for any individual. One of the main reasons for plant-based fatigue is simply not eating enough. Meat and dairy are generally a lot more calorie-dense than plant-based equivalents. Meat has more calories than virtually vegetable, as long as the serving the same weigh This means that if you eat the same amount of each by weight, you'll get more energy or calories from eating meat than you will from eating vegetables. But If you eat animal foods, most of the energy in the plants those animals ate has been lost as heat and only a fraction of it reaches you. Hence, eating plants is more efficient, meaning that less of the energy the plants contain is wasted.

Global warming or temperature warming is higly affecting the ecosystem and carbon cycle in boreal forest soils. Many scientific studies have shown that the temperature change make a tremendous modifications and alternation in those ecosystem. Boreal forests store large amounts of carbon in the soil. About 338 Pg (petagrams) of carbon is stored belowground in boreal forests, which is just about the same amount of carbon that tropical forests store aboveground in biomass. In some areas, the boreal forests grow on permafrost, which provides stability to the root systems of these trees and further traps the carbon in the soil. However, with warming in the boreal regions, much of this permafrost is melting or becoming more discontinuous, which affects tree stability and hydrology, and serves to release carbon and other potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. However, trees in the boreal are continuing to accumulate carbon into their biomass even into old age, and if disturbed even more carbon will be lost to the atmosphere. Reports say that boreal forests store almost twice the carbon than tropical forests.