Introduction
1. Create a food web to analyze the importance of each organism within the web.
2. Describe the human impact on natural resources and an ecosystem.
3. Interpret ecological pyramids from data.
4. Explain the effect of limiting factors on population growth.
5. Describe the pattern of succession that follows an environmental disturbance.
6. Define and describe the interactions between species and their affect on the stability of an ecosystem.
7. Evaluate the effect of non-native/invasive species on the stability of an ecosystem.
8. Explain the biogeochemical cycles and their role in ecosystems.
3.4: Describe how matter cycles through an ecosystem by way of food chains and food webs and how organisms convert that matter into a variety of organic molecules to be used in part in their own cellular structures.
3.5: Describe how energy from the sun flows through an ecosystem by way of food chains and food webs and how only a small portion of that energy is used by individual organisms while the majority is lost as heat.
4.1: Explain that the amount of life environments can support is limited by the available energy, water, oxygen and minerals and by the ability of ecosystems to recycle the remains of dead organisms.
4.2: Describe how human activities and natural phenomena can change the flow and of matter and energy in an ecosystem and how those changes impact other species.
4.3: Describe the consequences of introducing non-native species into an ecosystem and
Describe how energy derived from the sun is used by plants to produce sugars (photosynthesis) and is transferred within a food chain from producers (plants) to consumers to decomposers.
Explain how the ecosystem was affected by the missing species for each round of the demonstration.
As the energy moves through the system, nutrients also travel through the levels of the food chain through the predator prey feeding cycle active in the food chain. To summarize the nutrients are cycled through the food web and the energy is not.
31. Question : Which of the following is best defined as a community of plants, animals, and microorgaisms that are linked by energy and nutrient flows and that interact with each other and with physical environment
One of those relationships, food webs, has an important function of transferring energy and keeping the biological lifecycle going by the various lifeforms feeding off one another. The concept of energy transfer that goes on in food chains in ecosystems keeps organisms living by the energy the body needs being provided when they eat other organisms, as supported by the studies of “food chains, food webs, and trophic levels.” It is important that we continue to observe ecosystems like the Everglades Hardwood Hammock in order to help preserve them. (Arms,
Name and describe the roles of the three main trophic categories that make up the biotic structure of every ecosystem. Give examples of organisms from each category.
An ecosystem is a community of interacting organisms and their environment. If one of the organisms is disturbed, it can change the trophic cascade which is a sequence of impacts down the food chain. Hannibal supports this statement by writing “keeping these connections going ensures healthy, functioning ecosystems, which in turn support human life.”(578) An example of this is if all of the beavers died the other organisms would go somewhere else or die due because they no longer will have dams to support their ideal habitat.
B. Ecosystem Structure, Natural Ecosystem Change, Ecosystem Diversity, Biological populations and communities, Aquatic Biomes, Natural succession, Food Chain, Food Web, Evolution
2. Explain how the article relates to this course. Identify which biological concepts from the course and / or text are relevant to the topic covered in the article. Citing the course text, discuss the ways in which this course does (or doesn’t) provide background information to help you understand the article and the larger issues surrounding it.
The audience of this book is presumed to be the general person who is not fully intact with the ideas that he or she is disrupting the ecosystem and is not aware of the effects they are doing as a whole. The book argues that no ecosystem is completely inert as things such as climate changes or drought can also affect the enviorment. Without human interaction an environment can still have issues, but the introduction of human life and economy does take a grave toll on the climate. These are irreversible effects that mankind are doing to the ecosystem. The English
1. Information transfer is fundamental to all living organisms. For TWO of the following examples, explain in detail, how the transfer of information is accomplished.
a. What is the name of the organism you selected? Leaves/Grass b. If this organism is removed, make 3 specific predictions of what will happen to the food web (your specific prediction includes the organism affected and if it will increase, decrease, etc. and WHY). 1. The number of animal who depends on leaves or grass will
Explain how the introduction of new plants, animals, and technologies altered the natural (physical) environment of North America. Think Columbian Exchange.
1. (a) How might one best define ecology today? (b) Please define the term “environmental problem”? (c) Briefly describe the relationship between the science of ecology and our understanding of environmental problems?
A food web is a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains. Grass gets energy from the sun, cows like to eat grass. Milk comes from a cow and people like to drink milk. Without the cows people would not have milk or cheeseburgers. Without grass, the cow would not get the energy to