Unit 4: Biomes & Climate (a little bit)

El Nino
What are El Nino and La Nina? From NOAA
El Nino Blog

Ecology

symbiosis_activity.pdf
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flushing_and_finding_nemo.pages
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coral_reef__mangrove_swamps.ppt
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The Sixth Extinction
Picture
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/17/140540662/miami-invaded-by-giant-house-eating-snails
Readings:
Habitable Planet

sand_county_almanac_excerpt_leopold.pdf
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hetch_hetchy_valley_excerpt_muir.pdf
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silent_spring_reading_excerpt_carson.pdf
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The case of the Vanishing Bees - NYTimes 9/2014
Goals: Community Ecology
  • Compare and contrast the major types of species interactions (competition, predation, symbiosis)
  • Characterize feeding relationships and energy flow, using them to construct trophic levels
  • Understand and apply the 10% Rule
  • Distinguish characteristics of a keystone species
  • Characterize the process of succession and the debate over the nature of communities
  • Perceive and predict the potential impacts of invasive species in communities
  • Explain the goals and methods of ecological restoration
  • Describe and illustrate the biomes of the world
Goals: Ecosystem Ecology
  • Describe the nature of environmental systems
  • Define ecosystems and evaluate how living and nonliving entities interact in ecosystem-level ecology
  • Outline the fundamentals of landscape ecology
Skills:
  • Determine Diversity Using the Shannon Wiener Diversity Index
  • Determine Population Size using the Catch & Release Method
  • Working with Scientific Notation: Adding, Subtracting, Dividing, & Multiplying
Unit 2: Natural Selection, Biodiversity, & Population Ecology

Readings: 
Expanding the Limits of Life
What does a newborn island look like?

Videos
Introduction to Evolution & Natural Selection
Natural Selection & the owl Butterfly
Wolves in Yellowstone Park

Goals: Natural Selection
  • Explain and evaluate several hypothesis that explain the origins of life
  • Describe what the fossil record has shown scientists
  • Explain the process of natural selection
  • Cite evidence for natural selection
  • Compare allopatric and sympatric speciation
  • Describe the three major types of selection (directional, stabilizing, & disruptive)
  • Contrast background extinction rates with periods of mass extinction
  • Discuss reasons for species extinction and mass extinction events
  • Identify the mass extinction events that have occurred on Earth
Goals: Biodiversity & Population Ecology
  • List the levels of ecological organization
  • Outline the characteristics of populations that help predict population growth
  • Compare logistical and exponential growth
  • Explain how limiting factors and carrying capacity impact population growth
  • Describe types of survivorship
  • Use the growth rate formula to determine a population's growth rate
  • Compare K-selected species to R-selected species, give examples and characteristics of each group
  • Compare density-independent and density-dependent limiting factors
Goals: Biodiversity
  • Define the term biodiversity
  • Describe the ways that evolution influences biodiversity
  • Explain the Theory of Island Bioggeography
  • Characterize the scope of biodiversity on Earth (species, genetic, and ecosystem)
  • Evaluate the primary causes of biodiversity loss
  • Describe the major benefits of biodiversity (be sure to know specific examples of each)
  • Describe the field of conservation biology
Skills:
  • Chi Square Statistical Analysis
  • Determine Population Density
  • Quadrant Sampling with a Transect