H- Biology
Unit 2 – Ecology
Name: _________________________
Date ______________Pd: 1 2 3 7 8
Semester 1
Unit 2 – Ecology
Enduring Understandings:
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Scientific inquiry progresses through a continuous critical thinking process that may include questioning,
predicting, experimentation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, and review.
Ecosystems are complex, interactive systems that include both biological communities and physical
components of the environment.
Essential Questions:
1. Why are there so many living organisms on Earth and so many different species?
2. How do the characteristics of the nonliving environment help to determine which organisms thrive in
particular areas?
3. How is the recycling of matter important to the survival of organisms?
4. How is the survival of organisms dependent upon their relationships with other organisms?
5. What are the earth’s limitations to supporting life?
6. How are these limitations regulated - naturally or unnaturally?
7. What happens to ecosystems when the environment changes?
8. How do humans impact the ecosystem? (special interest project – students report using any media)
Part 1 – Relationships between organisms and their physical environment
Ch. 18.2 - 18.4 & 21
Students will be able to…
1. Explain the difference between habitat and niche.
2. Explain how abiotic factors such as temperature, moisture availability, light and nutrient
availability influence a biome or an ecosystem.
3. Describe examples of plant and animal adaptations to specific biomes.
4. Describe how organisms respond to changes in the environment. (tolerance, acclimation,
conformers, regulators, dormancy and migration)
5. Explain the difference between autotrophs and heterotrophs.
6. Differentiate between the various types of consumer: Herbivores, Omnivores, Carnivores, and
Decomposers.
7. Interpret a food chain and food web and label the various trophic levels.
8. Describe the transfer of energy from one trophic level to another.
9. Identify the key organisms necessary for a successful transfer of energy in any ecosystem.
10. Explain the cycling of carbon through an ecosystem.
11. State the reactants and products of photosynthesis. (Chapter 6.2)
12. State the reactants and products of cellular respiration. (Chapter 7.1)
13. Connect photosynthesis and cellular respiration to the carbon cycle.
Important Vocabulary:
Acclimation
Abiotic
Autotroph
Biodiveristy
Biotic
Biome
Carbon Cycle
Cellular Respiration
Chlorophyll
Confromer
Ecology
Ecosystem
Energy Pyramid
Food Chain
Food Web
Habitat
Heterotroph
Niche
Photosynthesis
Product
Reactant
Regulator
Tolerance
Trophic Level
Yield
Part 2 – Relationships between organisms of the same species
Chapter 19.1-19.2
Students will be able to…
1. Describe the three main measures of populations; size, density and dispersion.
2. Identify the four processes that determine population growth; immigration, birth, emigration,
and death.
3. Compare the exponential model and the logistic model of population growth.
4. Describe the factors that contribute to exponential and logistic population growth.
5. Define carrying capacity and its impact on populations.
6. Identify nonliving limiting factors and explain how they affect a population.
Part 3 – Relationships between organisms of different species
Chapter 20
Students will be able to…
1. Explain how predation, competition, and disease limit populations.
2. Compare parasitism, mutualism and commensalism and state how these symbiotic
relationships impact populations.
3. Describe species richness and how it is measured.
4. Describe factors that affect species richness in a community.
5. Explain how disturbances affect community stability.
6. Distinguish between types of succession.
Important Vocabulary:
Carrying capacity
Commensalism
Community
Competition
Density
Dispersion
Emigration
Exponential model
Immigration
Limiting Factor
Logistic model
Mutualism
Parasitism
Population
Predation
Succession
Symbiosis
Project: How does the human population affect ecosystems?
Identify, research, evaluate and refine a solution for reducing the impact of human
activities on the environment and biodiversity.