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Georgia Department of Education Standards of Excellence for Ecology:
SB5. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to assess the interdependence of all organisms on one another and their environment.
a. Plan and carry out investigations and analyze data to support explanations about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems. (Clarification statement: Factors include population size, carrying capacity, response to limiting factors, and keystone species.)
b. Develop and use models to analyze the cycling of matter and flow of energy within ecosystems through the processes of photosynthesis and respiration.
Arranging components of a food web according to energy flow.
Comparing the quantity of energy in the steps of an energy pyramid.
Explaining the need for cycling of major biochemical elements (C, O, N, P, and H).
c. Construct an argument to predict the impact of environmental change on the stability of an ecosystem.
d. Design a solution to reduce the impact of a human activity on the environment. (Clarification statement: Human activities may include chemical use, natural resources consumption, introduction of non-native species, greenhouse gas production.)
e. Construct explanations that predict an organism’s ability to survive within changing environmental limits (e.g., temperature, pH, drought, fire).
Why study ecology? Perhaps you are interested in learning about the natural world and how living things have adapted to the physical conditions of their environment. Or, perhaps you’re a future physician seeking to understand the connection between your patients' health and their environment.
Humans are a part of the ecological landscape, and human health is one important part of human interaction with our physical and living environment. Lyme disease, for instance, serves as one modern-day example of the connection between our health and the natural world (Figure 44.1). More formally known as Lyme borreliosis, Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans when they are bitten by the deer tick (Ixodes scapularis in the eastern U.S., and Ixodes pacificus along the Pacific coast). Deer ticks are the primary vectors (a vector is an organism that transmits a pathogen) for this disease. However, not all ticks carry the pathogen, and not all deer ticks carry the bacteria that will cause Lyme disease in humans. Also, the ticks I. scapularis and pacificus can have other hosts besides deer. In fact, it turns out that the probability of infection depends on the type of host upon which the tick develops: a higher proportion of ticks that live on white-footed mice carry the bacterium than do ticks that live on deer. Knowledge about the environments and population densities in which the host species is abundant would help a physician or an epidemiologist better understand how Lyme disease is transmitted and how its incidence could be reduced.
Ecology is the study of the interactions of living things with their environment. Ecologists ask questions that comprise four levels of general biological organization—organismal, population, community, and ecosystem. At the organismal level, ecologists study individual organisms and how they interact with their environments. At the population and community levels, ecologists explore, respectively, how a population of organisms changes over time and the ways in which that population interacts with other species in the community. Ecologists studying an ecosystem examine the living species (the biotic components) of the ecosystem as well as the nonliving portions (the abiotic components), such as air, water, and soil, of the environment.
The Earth has gone through periodic cycles of increases and decreases in temperature. During the past 2,000 years, the Medieval Climate Anomaly was a warmer period, while the Little Ice Age was unusually cool. Both of these irregularities can be explained by natural causes of changes in climate, and, although the temperature changes were small, they had significant effects. Natural drivers of climate change include Milankovitch cycles, changes in solar activity, and volcanic eruptions. None of these factors, however, leads to rapid increases in global temperature or sustained increases in carbon dioxide.
The burning of fossil fuels is an important source of greenhouse gases, which play a major role in the greenhouse effect. Two hundred and fifty million years ago, global warming resulted in the Permian extinction: a large-scale extinction event that is documented in the fossil record. Currently, modern-day climate change is associated with the increased melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets, resulting in a gradual increase in sea level. Plants and animals can also be affected by global climate change when the timing of seasonal events, such as flowering or pollination, is affected by global warming.
Class Resources:
Textbook:
Chapter 4: Ecosystems
Chapter 5: Populations
Chapter 6: Communities and Ecosystem Dynamics
Chapter 7: Humans and Global Change
Other Resources:
Worksheets for food chain, food web, energy pyramids
Biomagnification Notes
Symbiosis notes and Are you my bubby? WS
Cycles of Matter Notes
Oh Deer game
Populations Notes
The story of Mt. St. Helens- A story of succession
Ecological Succession Notes
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