Unit 8 Ecology

Learning Objectives

1. Explain how the behavioral and/or physiological response of an organism is related to changes in internal or external environment.

2. Explain how the behavioral responses of organisms affect their overall fitness and may contribute to the success of the population.

3. Describe the strategies organisms use to acquire and use energy.

4. Explain how the activities of autotrophs and heterotrophs enable the flow of energy within an ecosystem.

5. Describe factors that influence growth dynamics of populations.

6. Explain how the density of a population affects and is determined by resource availability in the environment.

7. Describe the structure of a community according to its species composition and diversity.

8. Explain how interactions within and among populations influence community structure.

9. Explain how community structure is related to energy availability in the environment.

10. Describe the relationship between ecosystem diversity and its resilience to changes in the environment.

11. Explain how the addition or removal of any component of an ecosystem will affect its overall short-term and long-term structure.

12. Explain the interaction between the environment and random or preexisting variations in populations.

13. Describe human activities that lead to changes in ecosystem structure and/or dynamics.

14. Explain how geological and meteorological activity leads to changes in ecosystem structure and/or dynamics.