Module 7: Ecology

Assessment Anchors

• Describe the levels of ecological organization (organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, and biosphere)
• Describe the characteristic biotic and abiotic components of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
• Describe how energy flows through an ecosystem (food chains, food webs, energy pyramids)
• Describe biotic interaction in an ecosystem (competition, predation, symbiosis)
• Describe how matter recycles through an ecosystem (water cycle, carbon cycle, oxygen cycle, and nitrogen cycle)
• Describe how ecosystems change in response to natural and human disturbances (climate changes, introduction of nonnative species, pollution, fires)
• Describe the effects of limiting factors on population dynamics and potential species extinction.

Key Vocabulary: