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Subject/Course Title: Biology
Unit Title/Skill Set: 10. Ecology
Overview: This unit examines the interactions of organisms with one
another and their interrelationship with the environment.
Unit Essential Question(s): How do organisms interact with and depend on
each other in an ecosystem? How are organisms impacted by the nonliving
components of an ecosystem?
Unit Competencies
* What students need to be able to do (skills) as Do Now’s
1a. Describe and differentiate between the levels of ecological organization.
1b. Describe characteristic biotic and abiotic components of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
2a. Describe how energy flows through an ecosystem.
2b. Describe biotic interactions within an ecosystem.
5. Describe the niche of an organism.
7. Describe how matter recycles in an ecosystem.
8b. Describe how ecosystems change in response to natural and human disturbances.
8b. Describe the effects of limiting factors on population dynamics and potential species extinction.
Unit Concepts
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*What students need to know
The levels of ecological organization
o Organism
o Population
o Community
o Ecosystem
o Biome
o Biosphere
Abiotic components of an ecosystem
Biotic components of an ecosystem
Characteristic abiotic and biotic components of earth’s aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
The ultimate energy source is the sun.
o Other initial sources of energy
 Chemicals
 Heat
Photosynthesis and cellular respiration
Structure and components of a food chain or food web.
Implications of the 10% rule/law (energy pyramids)
Habitat and niche (fundamental and realized)
Symbiotic interactions within an ecosystem
Biogeochemical cycles
o Water cycle
o Carbon cycle
o Oxygen cycle
o Nitrogen cycle
Examples of natural disturbances affecting ecosystems
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o Ecological succession
o Natural disasters
Examples of human disturbances affecting ecosystems
o Human overpopulation
o Climate changes
o Introduction of nonnative species
o Pollution
o Fires
Effects of human and natural disturbances on ecosystems
o Loss of biodiversity
o Loss of habitat
o Increased rate of extinction
o Disruption of natural biological cycles
Carrying capacity
Limiting factors
o Density dependent
o Density independent
Effects of limiting factors on population dynamics
o Biotic potential
o Environmental resistance
o Increase/decreased/ stabilized population growth
o Extinction
o Increased/decreased/
stabilized biodiversity
Vocab Directions:
Choose eight words from each group. Make flash cards using one sheet of paper per
group. We will play Bingo with the cards.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
10% rule/law
abiotic
aquatic ecosystem
autotroph
biodiversity
biome
biosphere
biotic
biotic potential
carbon cycle
carnivore
carrying capacity
chemosynthesis
commensalism
community
competition
consumer
decomposer
density dependent
density independent
ecological pyramid
ecosystem
energy
evolution
extinction
food chain
food web
fundamental niche
herbivore
heterotroph
limiting factors
mutualism
nitrogen cycle
nonnative species
omnivore
organism
oxygen cycle
parasitism
photosynthesis
population
predation
producer
realized niche
succession
symbiosis
terrestrial ecosystem
trophic level
water cycle
ECOLOGY SYLLABUS
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5.
Every reading assignment is expected to be completed BEFORE you come to class. Confused
about the reading? Prepare questions to ask in class AS YOU READ.
Be a Scout and Be Prepared…Reading quizzes may be given at ANY time.
Homework is due ON THE DUE DATE (Sectionals—Turn in on the due date…Field trips
and illnesses—turn in on your first day back.).
Do Now’s are to be completed in class and turned in THAT BLOCK. (Absent??—Turn in
first day back. Questions on the reading that goes with the Do Now??—Turn in written
question specifying what you don’t understand. Be specific. Don’t say, “I don’t get it”.)
Vocabulary understanding is necessary. Attend to the words at the beginning of each
chapter, or words that you encounter that are new to you.
6. **In order for you to participate in structured activities and labs, you must have
your Guided Reading up-to-date as well as your vocabulary.
Day
Lesson
Homework/Due Dates
Slides
For day 1, Read: 16.1 What is an
1-4
Ecological levels of organization
ecosystem?
Biotic/abiotic components of ecosystems
For day 1, Read: 16.2 Energy flow in
Succession
ecosystems
Read: 17.3, Major biological
communities
5
6-7
8
9
Slides
Trophic levels
Energy transfers
Energy flow-webs, chains, pyramids
Organisms interacting in communities
Cycles
Ecosystem response to disturbances
Slides
Population dynamics/graphs
Limiting factors
Eco Test
Introduction to Kingdoms of Life
_______Score
Read: 17.1 Organisms interacting in
communities
Read: 17.2 Competition Shapes
Communities
Due: Levels of organization, Biomes
Read: 16.3 Cycles
Read: 18.1 Global change
Due (7): Organisms interacting in
communities, Food Webs/Trophic
Read: 18.2, 18.3 The Environment
Due: Cycles
Read: 19.1, 19.2, 19.3
Due: Do Now’s
Ecology Test
Ecological Levels of Organization
Name__________________
Background:
All living things belong to more than one group of ‘things’. For example, Fred, a whale,
is a mammal, which is an organism, and Fred belongs to a pod of mammals that pals
around together off the Grand Banks of New Foundland, which is a population, who can
breed together and produce fertile offspring. The community in which it lives consists of
its buddy whales, a few cod, some krill, and maybe a dolphin or two. The ecosystem to
which it belongs has in it the abiotic factors such as the pH of the ocean, the temperature
of the ocean at that location, the salinity, any seasonal changes, as well as all the living
biotic critters there. The large biome to which the whale and his compadres and all the
other similar biotic/abiotic features belong is marine. Luckily, Fred and los Cetaceans
live in the thin volume of Earth and its atmosphere which supports life called the
biosphere. Fred thinks of these levels of organization as his ‘address’ in life.
Directions:
Write the ecological levels of organization to which you belong. Start small and go big.
Be specific and use my background as an example.
Organizational Level
Location
Who Belongs
Biomes
__________
Name___________________
Directions:
Use your text (Owl) and/or your slides to complete the following biome information.
Biome name (Terrestrial)
Abiotic Factors
Biotic Factors
Model
(Titles/Labels)
Over
Biome name (Aquatic)
Abiotic Factors
Biotic Factors
How Organisms Interact in Communities
Model
(Title/Labels)
__________Score
Name___________________
Directions:
Complete the Section 1 Objectives on p. 362: Describe, Predict, Identify. Restate the
questions in your answer. Use complete sentences. Use punctuation.
Directions:
Complete the Section 2 Objectives on p. 365: Describe, Distinguish, Describe,
Summarize. Restate the questions in your answer. Use complete sentences. Use
punctuation.
________Score
Food Webs/Trophic Levels
Name____________________
Background:
All living things rely on other living as well as non-living things. This relatedness gets a
bit messy at times because it’s difficult to take into account all of the connections. Every
time something or someone gets eaten, energy moves ‘up a level’, and about 90% of the
energy in the organism that got eaten is lost in heat and waste. Only about 10% of the
energy available gets transferred to the consumer. These levels are called trophic levels.
Most food webs start with producers, or plants. Then the arrow points to those
organisms that eat the plants, such as the primary consumers, which in this case would
be herbivores. Now there may be multiple herbivores eating the plants, so in this case,
there will be multiple arrows going from the plants to the primary consumers. In the next
trophic level are the critters that eat the herbivores. These are the secondary consumers
and are carnivores. Again, some carnivores will be eating multiple herbivores, but they
may also be eating other carnivores. So here is where the lines and arrows become really
webby. Just to make things interesting, some animals are not strictly meat-eaters. These
critters are called omnivores and eat both plants and animals. Actually, most carnivores
really are omnivores. Just think of your house cat or dog. Cats and dogs frequently eat
grassy plants to aid in digestion. Smart critters! Ultimately, the worms crawl in and the
worms crawl out, as the end consumers are the detritivores/decomposers. These are the
organisms that break down dead and decaying organic matter such as bacteria, and
worms.
Directions:
Create a food web on the back of this paper.
 Start with producers, then add primary consumers, then secondary consumers,
then the detritivores/decomposers.
 Label: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer,
detritivore/decomposer, herbirvore, carnivore, omnivore.
 At each point where something gets eaten, draw an arrow from what is getting
eaten to what is eating it.
 At each arrow, calculate the % of energy that is being transferred to the critter that
is doing the eating. Circle this percent.
 Answer the Discussion Questions below your model.
Discussion Questions:
1. How many arrows do you have total? How do you think that relates to the
smallest percent of energy that got transferred to the detritivores/decomposers?
2. How many trophic levels do you have? Why do you think that most food webs
have no more than four (and most have fewer) trophic levels?
The Environmental Issues: Organisms Acting in Communities
Background:
All living things produce waste. There’s just no getting around it. Unfortunately, humans
have been producing waste that is increasingly toxic to our planet. With the coming of the
Industrial Revolution came machinery that made life more stable, more predictable, more
enjoyable, more nutritious, and plain more, more, more. As a result, our population
increased dramatically due to better nutrition and health, leaving us with a longer life,
more leisure time, and more toxic materials in our air, water, and land. The rate at which
this toxicity has increased is extremely alarming. How are humans coping with the
environmental changes and degradation? How are other organisms coping? Some
organisms haven’t been able to cope, and have gone extinct. Others have carried an
increased load of mutations in their populations. Some have become so burdened that
they are slowly losing the ability to reproduce.
Directions:
Use your text and/or real news articles (quote sources or attach copies) to compare and
contrast two environmental issues. On the back of this paper, complete the chart using:
 Left column for one issue and its characteristics that only it has
o Title it with the issue
o This must contain one quote with page #
 Right column for the second issue and its characteristics that only it has
o Title it with the issue
o This must contain one quote with page #
 Middle column for characteristics that both issues share in common
o Title it with ‘Traits of Both’
 Bottom row for a model relating to the two issues
o Titles and labels!!!
Environmental Issues
________Score
Title
Name___________________
Title
Title
Cycles
_________Score
Name____________________
Background:
You know, we aren’t getting new water trucked into us from Mars. Just ain’t happening.
So where does ‘our’ water come from? It came from when the dinosaurs urinated, then it
came from when water evaporated from a stagnant pond as glaciers retreated in what is
now New Hampshire during the last Ice Age, then it came from when someone spilled
their Coke on the sidewalk and it evaporated because it was 99 degrees and just plain hot!
It’s a good thing that we don’t really lose all this water into outer space, because outer
space isn’t importing it back to us. So what happens to our natural resources? Where does
the water go when we flush? Where does the carbon dioxide go when we exhale? All life
is a circle. Sounds kind of philosophical, doesn’t it? However, it’s true. Nothing ever
really goes ‘AWAY’, it just get changed, or transformed. Perhaps it’s changed to the
point that we can no longer utilize it the way we did previously. Perhaps it gets recycled
pretty much the same way that it has been for a millennia. A cycle is a process whereby a
substance goes through a series of fairly predictable changes between living and nonliving components of the environment. For most of the cycles, the majority of a
substances time is spent tied up in non-living, or abiotic stages. Problems arise when
some change occurs to disrupt the normal flow of a cycle. Pollution and deforestation are
just two causes of cycle disruptions.
Directions:
For each cycle in the two texts (Owl and Polar Bear):
 Copy the cycle words and arrows, but not the pictures
 Put the words/arrows in about the same position that they are in the picture
 Under each cycle, write four vocab words (words used in the cycle) and their
definition
Discussion Questions:
1. How many components (exact or nearly the exact same word OR model of a
similar living/non-living thing) were the same in each of the cycles? How can
components be shared between cycles?
2. How do you think pollution may affect one of these cycles?
________Score
Do Now—Ecology
Name______________________________
*Remember to rephrase the question in your answer. Write using complete sentences and
punctuation.
1a.
1b.
2a.
2b.
5.
7.
8a.
8b.