Major Topics in this Unit:

• Levels of Organization

• Biomes

• Food Webs, Chains, and Trophic Levels

• Ecological Pyramids

• Biogeochemical Cyclces

• Community Interactions

• Succession

• Population Growth

• Limiting Factors

Essential Questions:

1. How does natural selection provide the mechanism for evolution of life?

2. What evidence is there that supports evolution?

3. How do the mechanisms of microevoltuion lead to changes in the allele frequency of a population?

4. How does Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium relate to evolution in populations?

5. How does speciation occur?

6. How can some species evolve together?

7. How can species become more similar or dissimilar over time?

Vocabulary for this section:

Vocab for Ecology

Notes for this section:

Notes on Food Webs and Levels:

Helpful Links:

Animal Tagging Video

Intro to Food Webs: (Video)

Community Interactions:

Great review of interactions

Good review of interactions

Plant Competition:

Mutualism and Commensalism:

Build an Insect:

Wolves can change a River:

5 Invasive Species:

Sea Lamprey Invasive species

Human Population Animation:

MT. ST. Helens Video