Download Unit IV Biodiversity

ECO,
BIODIV
CONSERV
ZOOLOGY/BOTANY UNIT 4 ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND
CONSERVATION SYLLABUS
Outside
data collecting, library, internet, computer enhanced
2 Weeks
presentation software, hardware (projector, AV equipment), teacher
handouts, lab materials, current journals, references.
DAY
1
LESSON
Conservation/Biodiversity Guided Reading: Text,
read aloud, selected readings; responses
HOMEWORK/DUE
Texts in the room
2-5
Lab: Biodiversity
Outside data collecting
Graphing data
Mouse slides
Lab report writing
DUE Day 3: Reading Responses
6-8
Ecology Guided Reading: Text, read aloud,
selected readings (See the visuals in the unit
packet…read the text passages for explanations;
responses
DUE Day 8: Lab Report
9
Respond to EQ/KQ questions.
DUE: Bubblegram Answers
DUE: Ecology Responses
10
Padlet: Important people in researching this
topic
11
DUE: EQ/KQ Question
Responses
DUE: Padlet posts
EQ/KQ Questions:
1. How does number of individuals within a population influence an ecosystem?
2. How do numbers of species within a population influence an ecosystem?
3. How does interdependence influence populations.
4. How do stimuli/response influence organisms?
5. Why conserve species?
6. How do abiotic/biotic factors influence individuals/communities?
7. How do current scientific advances (genetics, tech, etc) influence changes in
organisms and their relationships?
BIODIVERSITY-Introduction
Biodiversity is the measure of the relative ‘health’ of an ecological area. This
measure is based on the number of different species in the area, as well as the
numbers of individuals of each species. These indicators of health measures include
microscopic organisms (bacteria/decomposers, some protists), producers
(autotrophic plants, some protists), and consumers (some protists, fungi,
heterotrophic animals). These organisms are the biotic factors, or living things, in an
area. These organisms in turn, rely on the abiotic, or non-living factors in an area.
Examples of abiotic factors are: salinity, climate/weather/temperature, pH, wind,
water, composition of soil such as sand vs organic layers, and seasonal factors such
as number of sunlight hours.
Factors that change the abiotic conditions often result in a disruption and eventually
an imbalance in the biodiversity of an area. For example, dumping toxic chemicals
into a waterway may pollute aquatic plant and fish habitat to the point that planbts
die, leaving a gap where fish fry used to hatch and grow, leading to fewer and fewer
fish reaching adulthood. As the water becomes more polluted, fish die directly from
the pollution. Factors that change the biotic conditions may lead to an imbalance as
well. For example, paths, dirt roads, and paved roads laid down in a forest will result
in small pockets of fragmented forested area separated by the roadway barrier.
Small organisms cannot or will not cross the barrier as they will be exposed to
predation. This may lead to inbreeding depression in the species, which can lead to
species collapse. As a result, predator organisms that use the collapsed species as a
food source now will not have sufficient food. This may result in starvation, disease,
emigration of the predator species. Since the removal of the predator, other
organisms may increase in number. Therefore, an imbalance results in the
biodiversity of the area.
Sustainability reflects a conservation-focused use of a natural area. For example,
some jungle areas that were heavily poached of wildlife are now actively promoting
eco-tourism and benefitting from an increased economic gain as well as a healthier
biodiversity of organisms. This sort of land use is a win-win situation whereby
tourists actively participate in the conservation of an area ($$$ spent on the tour)
and actively learn about the ecological significance of the area. Human populations
benefit by producing and selling ‘goods and services’ to the tourists. Of course, some
areas must be set aside as ‘wild’ due to the nature of the native species or for safety
issues.
Watch the mouse pathway slides.
Continue the activity below.
Biodiversity—Oak Tress and Effects of Human Pathways…A Study of
Interactions
_______Score
Name________________________________
Listen as I read aloud from the Aldo Leopold book, A Sand County Almanac. Write a
5-10 sentence response below stating how this information may affect your life.
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Watch the slide presentation, answering the slide questions as you go. Compare and
contrast the life events of the old oak reading with the barrier’s effects on the mice.
Use specific examples from each source. Use quotes.
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After the slide presentation, work together with a partner to formulate a question of
your own on some issue that affects biodiversity. In order to facilitate this, read ch 6
in the Dragonfly book AND ch 23 in the Owl book. Use the other reference books I
have out for you as well. Pay special attention to Zeger’s book, At the Crossroads.
Write your question here:
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Choose one other group to work with. Read each other’s question and discuss some
methods or strategies that you might use in order to answer the question. Write at
least two methods or strategies below that you might use to answer your own
question.
1. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
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2. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
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What materials would you need for ONE of the Methods strategies?
Method______________________________________________________________________________________
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On a plain piece of paper, make a blank data table that you might use to collect data
from the above Methods.
Biodiversity Lab
One of the mainstays of checking the health of biodiversity is a quantitative analysis
of the number of different species in any one particular habitat or location. Do not
confuse this with the number of individuals in any one species. It is not the same.
How are these two concepts the same?
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How are they different?
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The idea here is that the more species that exist in a particular habitat, the more
varied the food sources, the more predator/prey interation, and the more choices
organisms have for mates, thus keeping populations healthy.
Unfortunately, this usually requires a large natural area and in today’s reality of an
exponentially increasing human population, large natural areas are diminishing
rapidly. Moreover, as you have seen from the mouse study, even large areas that are
preserved but have pathways bisecting them, put a strain on breeding populations,
causing inbreeding and a decline of species health.
Method
In this lab, you will be given a small area in which to conduct a quick, really, really
quick, data collection of the habitat and its inhabitants.
1. You will collect both quantitative (numbers), and qualitative (adjectives that
describe) data.
2. Make graphs of at least three different habitats (one yours, two from other
students) using qualitative data.
3. Make one graph comparing three different habitats to yours using quantitative
data.
4. Write a short Introduction in which you explain the importance of diversity and
its effects on organisms.
5. Write a Results section for your choice of the graphs. The Results only report
what you got, not why you got these results.
6. Write a Conclusion/Discussion section in which you:
a. restate the issue
b. restate the results
c. state why you think you got these results
d. suggest what these results imply for the health of the habitats
e. tell what you might change about this study
Lattitude
Species Richness
Habitat Size and Species Richness
Species Interaction and Species Richness
Community Stability and Species Richness
How Disturbances Affect Community Stability
Animal Grazing
Fire
Types of Succession
Primary succession is the series of community changes which occur
on an entirely new habitat which has never been colonized before. For
example, a newly quarried rock face or sand dunes.
Secondary succession is the series of community changes which take
place on a previously colonized, but disturbed or damaged habitat. For
example, after felling trees in a woodland, land clearance or a fire.
Primary
Secondary
Why Succession May Not Be Predictable
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_impact_do_humans_have_on_succession
Succession is the process by which one plant community replaces another over time in a
given space, i.e. grassland to deciduous forest to coniferous forest. Natural events, such
as forest fires, can reset the succession cycle back to a grassland, for instance, at any
point in the cycle.
Humans can impact succession in a number of ways by suspending succession in one
phase or another or by causing an event that restarts the succession cycle (i.e. starting a
forest fire).
Suspending succession: We suspend succession when we promote one type of ecological
community over another. For example, we manage some forests for the purpose of
harvesting timber at a later time. Here, the emphasis is on mature, full-bodied trees that
have balanced competition from neighboring trees. These trees will be harvested before
they begin to fall down and begin to turn the forest into an old-growth forest where new
growth comes up where old trees fall in the forest. Promoting and attempting to sustain
this type of forest prohibits plants and animals that specialize in old-growth forests from
getting established.
Another interesting way in which we impact succession has been the impetus to
extinguish all forest fires since the early 1900s. Fires are naturally occurring and are an
important way in which forest ages are regulated naturally, which, in turn, regulates the
mosaic of food sources and wildlife habitats that occur. Putting out fires for most of the
last century has resulted in larger forest fires more recently and decreased plant &
animal diversity.
Restarting succession: We also can restart succession by starting wildfires, either
intentionally or unintentionally. While not inherently bad in the grand scheme of nature after all, nature in many cases depends on fire - it is a way in which man impacts
succession.
Ecology Graphing
Role of Competition in Shaping Communities
Use of Scarce Resources—Cities Planning and City Management
Size of Species Niche—Fundamental and Realized
http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Fundamental_niche
Definition
noun
The full range of environmental conditions and resources an organism can possibly occupy and use,
especially when limiting factors are absent in its habitat.
Supplement
The fundamental niche describes the potential area and resources an organism is capable of using. But the
presence of limiting factors such as direct competition with other organisms, the organism tends to occupy
a niche narrower than this.
Continued…
http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Realized_niche
Definition
noun
The part of fundamental niche that an organism occupies as a result of limiting factors present in its habitat.
Supplement
The presence of competing species in an environment is one example of a limiting factor that restrains or
narrows an organism's ecological niche. In a realized niche, the organism tends to occupy and play an
ecological role where it is mostly highly adapted.
Dividing Resources Among Species
Competition and Limitations of Resource Use
Competition Without Division of Resources
Inter/Intra Specific Competition
Predation and Competition
Biodiversity and Productivity
Use the computer to check out this site:
http://eurekaelearning.com/index.php/resources/biocoenosis_biosphere_ecosyste
m_evolution_energy_species_gene_homeostasis_generation_population_air_seat_suc
cession_t_page_17.html
Coevolution
Commensalism
Mutualism
Parasitism
Interspecific Competition
Predator Adaptation
Prey Adaptations
Important People in Researching Unit Topics
Background
Scientists rarely work independently. Most frequently, they work in groups,
internationally, and over long periods of time together in order to develop ideas that
are tested and developed into theories. Often, they work using discoveries from past
scientists and may even tweak these theories to make them more reflective of new
data and evidence.
Method
1. Each of you will get a topic/researcher to read about and post to a Padlet.
a. Name of researcher
b. Area of research
c. General time period researcher lived
d. Two interesting discoveries
e. Any controversy associated with the researcher/discovery.
f. Source of information (url)
2. You must then comment on the Padlet stickee belonging to the peer to which
you are assigned.
a. Your name must be at the top.
b. DO state if something is missing.
c. DO state if topic is adequately discussed. For example: ‘Jane Doe
discovered that Glog, the residue formed when lightning strikes ants,
does interesting things.’ Unfortunately, Ms. Doe does not tell WHAT
interesting thins Glog does!!!
Scientists/Topics
1. Gaia
2. Indicator species
3. E O Wilson
4. Edge Effect
5. Aldo Leopold
6. Island Biogeography
7. Biodiversity
8. R H. MacArthur
9. Endangered species
10. Deep Ecology
11. Population ecology
12. Predator/prey interactions
13. Paul R Ehrlich
14. Condors/bald eagles
15. Clumped, solitary, saturated
16. World’s nursery
17. Zoos