The concept of 'Ecological Transition' was first used by

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Correct — B, Bennett. The concept of the 'Ecological Transition' was propounded by the American cultural anthropologist John W. Bennett (1915-2005) in his 1976 book 'The Ecological Transition: Cultural Anthropology and Human Adaptation' (Pergamon). Bennett used the term for the shift in the human-environment relationship as societies move towards an increasingly intensive, technology-driven and instrumental use of nature, and for the way social and cultural factors mediate how humans adapt to their physical surroundings.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Charles Elton was a British animal ecologist known for the 'ecological niche', food chains and food webs, and the study of biological invasions — not for the 'ecological transition' concept.  (c) This does not name the author of the concept. (The Berkeley school of cultural geography under Carl Sauer studied the cultural landscape, but the term 'ecological transition' is Bennett's.)  (d) Friedrich Ratzel, the German geographer, is associated with anthropogeography, environmental determinism and 'Lebensraum' — not with the ecological-transition concept.

Concept: 'Ecological transition' is a concept from human / cultural ecology. John W. Bennett framed it as the process by which human societies pass into a phase of intensive, purposive and technologically mediated exploitation of the environment, with culture and social organisation shaping how people adapt. It links anthropology, ecology and sociology in the study of the man-environment relationship.

State PCS 2020 Q144 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2020 Q144 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer