EVR1001L 0001 Fall 2018 Lab 1 Easter Island Carrying Capacity and Sustainability Lab Report Materials and Methods In this experiment a time machine was used to document information from Easter Island during the years 900 1800 In each time period a line transact was conducted to measure the amount of Mulberry and Palm Trees within the given area A drone survey was also taken in each time period to calculate the human population without disturbing the people The information was then put into a table and results were calculated and compared Six total experiments were conducted Results Tables and Graphs Table 1 Mulberry Trees Palm Trees People Area of Transect Area of Drone Survey Mulberry Trees Palm Trees People counted counted counted km2 km2 km2 km2 km2 900 39 20 20 0 002 162 19 500 10 000 0 123 1200 30 13 1 280 0 002 162 15 000 6 500 8 1400 10 6 15 360 0 002 162 5 000 3 000 95 1500 3 1 22 500 0 002 162 1 500 500 139 1600 0 0 20 000 0 002 162 0 0 123 1800 0 0 2 000 0 002 162 0 0 12 Year Graph 1 Tree Density trees per sq km Tree Density vs Time 25 000 Mulberry Trees Palm Trees 20 000 15 000 10 000 5 000 0 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 Time Graph 1 compares the tree density of the Mulberry and Palm Trees on Easter Island from the year 900 to the year 1800 Population Density people per sq km Figure 2 Population Density vs Time 200 180 Population Density 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 Time Graph 2 displays the population density of Easter Island showing the growth and decline of the population from year 900 to year 1800 Discussion and Conclusions In the year 900 on Easter Island the tree population was very high the bulk of the tree population came from mulberry trees 19 500 km2 and palm trees 10 000 km2 along with the human population being very low less than 1 person per km2 As time started to progress the population of people began to rise In 1200 the population had risen to 1 280 8 people per km2 but the population of the mulberry trees 15 000 km2 and palm trees 6 500km2 had decreased slightly The year 1400 was when the population had grown to 95 people per km2 With this increase in population came another big decrease in the population of mulberry 5 000 per km2 and palm 3 000 per km2 trees In the year 1500 the population peaked at 139 people per km2 Again with this big population increase came the the decrease in the mulberry and palm tree population which was now only 2 000 per km2 combined In 1600 the tree population had reached zero while the population of the island had decreased slightly down to 123 people per km2 By the year 1800 there were still no trees and because of this the population was 12 people per km2 left on Easter Island There was a reason the tree density on the island started to decline when the population density started to increase after the year 1200 This is because the trees were used to not only house the growing population but as fire wood and timber for boats The people did not take into account that they were overharvesting the trees without planting more to be able to sustain their growing population The islanders depended on the trees for many things so after the tree population started to decline so did the population of Easter Island Easter Island is the perfect example of Tragedy of the Commons There were many different groups living on the island and they were overusing the shared lands only thinking as individuals and not as a whole population Because they did not communicate as a whole they were not able to live within their means and sustain what the island had it offer This experiment was able to show how it led to the downfall of their population