What are the Essential Questions you must answer in this unit:  

1. How does diversity among and between species in a biological  system affect the evolution of species within the system?

2. How does the acquisition of energy relate to the health of a biological system?

3. How do communities and ecosystems change, for better or worse, due to biological disruption?

4. How does a disruption of a biological system affect genetic information storage andtransmission?

5. How do species interactions affect the survival of an ecosystem? 

Unit Learning Objectives for Unit 8  - Ecology from the AP® curriculum

By the end of the unit you should be able to... 

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

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

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

• Explain how changes in energy availability affect populations and ecosystems.

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

• Describe factors that influence growth dynamics of populations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Explain how invasive species affect ecosystem dynamics.

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

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

Unit 8 Essential Knowledge - Big ideas to understand by the end of the unit