Ecosystems

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3 Why Are There ifferent Environments? Why Are There ifferent Environments? Understand the relationship between the climate of an area and the biome that it is in. Also, understand why rain falls in certain places and what that has to do with temperature. True or False? 1. Climate is the combination of temperature, precipitation and living things in a region. T / F 2. Biomes depend on the climate, but the climate of an area does not depend on the biome. T / F 3. We get more direct sunlight in the summer than in the winter. T / F 4. The sun is further away from us in the winter than in the summer. T / F 5. Precipitation is always carried by winds that move to the west. T / F About Biomes Here in Northeastern Ohio, we have four seasons: summer in June, July and August, winter in January, February and March. But this isn't the case all over the world. Some places in the world have a very long winter and a short summer, like in northern Canada. Other places have a very long summer and a short winter, as in Sub-Saharan Africa. We can see that temperature has a big effect on climate. Take another scenario: even though the temperatures and locations are very similar, Miami and Los Angeles are very different. Miami gets almost 5 feet of rain every year, while Los Angeles only receives slightly more than a foot of rain annually. Cleveland, by comparison, is in between Los Angeles and Miami at about 3 feet of precipitation per year. Los Angeles is in a climate that can be considered a desert but Miami is not. Precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc.) also has a big effect on climate. eserts throughout the world So what is climate? Climate is the group of conditions of the atmosphere near the earth's surface at a certain place on Earth. We can say that the climate of East Cleveland is that we have 3 Shaw High School

4 warm, humid summers and cold, snowy winters. Of course, there is a lot more that we could say about the climate of East Cleveland, but that's enough to start talking about biomes. A biome is the combination of a particular climate and the living things on Earth that live in that climate. An easy way to describe a biome is to say what the temperatures, precipitation, plants and animals are in that particular biome. In our biome (temperate deciduous forest), we have a lot of deciduous trees (the ones that lose their leaves in fall), grasses, small mammals, insects and a high population of humans. A biome depends greatly on climate, but climate does not depend on biomes. Certain animals and plants cannot survive in certain climates: just like there can't be evergreen trees in the desert, palm trees don't survive well in Antarctica! Likewise, certain animals are adapted to certain biomes, but not other ones. It's hard to imagine an How sunlight hits the Earth elephant in a snowy field or a polar bear on a tropical island. Of course, if global warming continues, this type of situation may happen. Speaking of global warming, it's important to understand how certain parts of the world get more heat than others. The sun remains about the same distance away from the Earth all year, every year. What causes the change in seasons is the amount of direct sun that a certain area gets. Because the Earth is slightly tilted on its axis, the sunlight that we get in the summer is much more direct than the sunlight that we get in the winter. From the diagram, you can see that indirect sunlight gets spread out over the surface of Earth more than direct sunlight. Precipitation, or when water falls from the atmosphere in any form, is caused by a combination of factors. The sunlight that hits the Earth and Winds on Earth the rotation of the Earth both

5 Why Are There ifferent Environments? play a role in the winds that control Earth's climate zones. From the diagram, you can see that winds take moisture away from certain parts of Earth and deliver precipitation to other parts. epending on the temperature of that air, the precipitation will be rain, snow, or something in between. True or False? 1. Climate is the combination of temperature, precipitation and living things in a region. T / F 2. Biomes depend on the climate, but the climate of an area does not depend on the biome. T / F 3. We get more direct sunlight in the summer than in the winter. T / F 4. The sun is further away from us in the winter than in the summer. T / F 5. Precipitation is always carried by winds that move to the west. T / F Questions o you remember? 1. What is climate, in your own words? 2. State the relationship between climate and biomes. 3. List at least five different types of precipitation (you need to come up with one of them on your own). Think about it! 4. Support the following statement with two pieces of evidence (including pictures) from this chapter: The equator is the hottest place on Earth. One of your pieces of evidence must have to do with winds. 5. Why are most of the world's deserts around 30 N or 30 S latitude? Use the diagrams and pictures in this chapter to help illustrate your answer, including How Sunlight Hits Earth and Winds on Earth. o something! 6. raw a diagram showing the Earth's axis and the United States during the four seasons in the northern hemisphere. Include the sun in the middle and show how direct the sunlight is in each season. Use the template to the right to help you: emember? 7. Identify five organ systems and the problems that they solve. 8. Paraphrase the main experiment that Mendel performed with pea plants in one paragraph. 9. ifferentiate a substitution, insertion and deletion. 10.What is genetic research? 5 Shaw High School

6 Coniferous Forest Temperature: -40 C to 20 C, average summer temperature is 10 C Precipitation: 300 to 900 millimeters of rain per year Vegetation: Coniferous-evergreen trees (trees that produce cones and needles; some needles remain on the trees all year long) Location: Canada, Europe, Asia, and the United States Other: Coniferous forest regions have cold, long, snowy winters, and warm, humid summers; well-defined seasons, at least four to six frost-free months escription: Between the tundra to the north and the deciduous forest to the south lies the large area o f coniferous forest. One type of coniferous forest, the northern boreal forest, is found in 50 to 60 N latitudes. Another type, temperate coniferous forests, grows in lower latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia, in the high elevations of mountains. Coniferous forests consist mostly of conifers, trees that grow needles instead of leaves, and cones instead of flowers. Conifers tend to be evergreen, that is, they bear needles all year long. These adaptations help conifers survive in areas that are very cold or dry. Some of the more common conifers are spruces, pines, and firs. Precipitation in coniferous forests varies from 300 to 900 mm annually, with some temperate coniferous forests receiving up to 2,000 mm. The amount of precipitation depends on the forest location. In the northern boreal forests, the winters are long, cold and dry, while the short summers are moderately warm and moist. In the lower latitudes, precipitation is more evenly distributed throughout the year

7 Why Are There ifferent Environments? Temperate eciduous Forest Temperature: -30 C to 30 C, yearly average is 10 C, hot summers, cold winters Precipitation: 750 to 1,500 mm of rain per year Vegetation: Broadleaf trees (oaks, maples, beeches), shrubs, perennial herbs, and mosses Location: Eastern United States, Canada, Europe, China, and Japan Other: Temperate deciduous forests are most notable because they go through four seasons. Leaves change color in autumn, fall off in the winter, and grow back in the spring; this adaptation allows plants to survive cold winters. Example: Staunton, Virginia, United States escription: Temperate deciduous forests are located in the mid-latitude areas which means that they are found between the polar regions and the tropics. The deciduous forest regions are exposed to warm and cold air masses, which cause this area to have four seasons. The temperature varies widely from season to season with cold winters and hot, wet summers. The average yearly temperature is about 10 C. The areas in which deciduous forests are located get about 750 to 1,500 mm of precipitation spread fairly evenly throughout the year. uring the fall, trees change color and then lose their leaves. This is in preparation for the winter season. Because it gets so cold, the trees have adapted to the winter by going into a period of dormancy or sleep. They also have thick bark to protect them from the cold weather. Trees flower and grow during the spring and summer growing season. Many different kinds of trees, shrubs, and herbs grow in deciduous forests. Most of the trees are broadleaf trees such as oak, maple, beech, hickory and chestnut. There are also several different kinds of plants like mountain laurel, azaleas and mosses that live on the shady forest floor where only small amounts of sunlight get through. 7 Shaw High School

8 esert Temperature: Average of 38 C (day), average of -3.9 C (night) Precipitation: About 250 mm of rain per year Vegetation: Cacti, small bushes, short grasses Location: Between 15 and 35 latitude (North and South of the equator); examples are Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahua, and Great Basin (North America); Sahara (Africa); Negev (Middle East); and Gobi (Asia) Other: Perennials survive for several years by becoming dormant and flourishing when water is available. Annuals are referred to as ephemerals because some can complete an entire life cycle in weeks. Example: El-Oasr el-akhdar, Egypt escription: esert biomes are the driest of all the biomes. In fact, the most important characteristic of a desert is that it receives very little rainfall. Most deserts receive less than 300 mm a year compared to rainforests, which receive over 2,000 mm. That means that the desert only gets 10 percent of the rain that a rainforest gets! The temperature in the desert can change drastically from day to night because the air is so dry that heat escapes rapidly at night. The daytime temperature averages 38 C while in some deserts it can get down to -4 C at night. The temperature also varies greatly depending on the location of the desert. Since desert conditions are so severe, the plants that live there need to have adaptations to compensate for the lack of water. Some plants, such as cacti, store water in their stems and use it very slowly, while others like bushes conserve water by growing few leaves or by having large root systems to gather water or few leaves. Some desert plant species have a short life cycle of a few weeks that lasts only during periods of rain

9 Why Are There ifferent Environments? Grassland Temperature: ependent on latitude, yearly range can be between -20 C to 30 C Precipitation: About 500 to 900 mm of rain per year Vegetation: Grasses (prairie clover, salvia, oats, wheat, barley, coneflowers) Location: The prairies of the Great Plains of North America, the pampas of South America, the veldt of South Africa, the steppes of Central Eurasia, and surrounding the deserts in Australia Other: Found on every continent except Antarctica Example: Ingeniera White, Argentina escription: Grasslands are generally open and continuous, fairly flat areas of grass. They are often located between temperate forests at high latitudes and deserts at subtropical latitudes. Grasses vary in size from 2.1 m (7 ft) tall with roots extending down into the soil 1.8 m (6 ft), to the short grasses growing to a height of only 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 in) tall. These short grasses can have roots that extend 1 m (about 3 ft) deep. The height of grass correlates with the amount of rainfall it receives. Grasslands receive about 500 to 900 mm of rain per year compared to deserts, which receive less than 300 mm and tropical forests, which receive more than 2,000 mm. While temperatures are often extreme in some grasslands, the average temperatures are about -20 C to 30 C. Tropical grasslands have dry and wet seasons that remain warm all the time. Temperate grasslands have cold winters and warm summers with some rain. The grasses die back to their roots annually and the soil and the sod protect the roots and the new buds from the cold of winter or dry conditions. A few trees may be found in this biome along the streams, but not many due to the lack of rainfall. 9 Shaw High School

10 ainforest Temperature: 20 C to 25 C, must remain warm and frostfree Precipitation: 2,000 to 10,000 millimeters of rain per year Vegetation: Vines, palm trees, orchids, ferns Location: Between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn Other: There are two types of rainforests, tropical and temperate. Tropical rainforests are found closer to the equator and temperate rainforests are found farther north near the coast. The majority of common houseplants come from the rainforest. Example: Campa Pita, Belize escription: There are two types of rainforests, tropical and temperate. Tropical rainforests are found closer to the equator where it is warm. Temperate rainforests are found near the cooler coastal areas further north or south of the equator. The tropical rainforest is a hot, moist biome where it rains all year long. It is known for its dense canopies of vegetation that form three different layers. The top layer or canopy contains giant trees that grow to heights of 75 m (about 250 ft) or more. This layer of vegetation prevents much of the sunlight from reaching the ground. Thick, woody vines are also found in the canopy. They climb trees in the canopy to reach for sunlight. The middle layer, or understory, is made up of vines, smaller trees, ferns, and palms. A large number of plants from this level are used as common houseplants. Because of the small amount of sunlight and rainfall these plants receive, they adapt easily to home environments. The bottom layer or floor of the rainforest is covered with wet leaves and leaf litter. This material decomposes rapidly in the wet, warm conditions (like a compost pile) sending nutrients back into the soil. Few plants are found on the floor of the forest due to the lack of sunlight. However, the hot, moist atmosphere and all the dead plant material create the perfect conditions in which bacteria and other microorganisms can thrive

11 Why Are There ifferent Environments? Shrubland Temperature: Hot and dry in the summer, cool and moist in the winter Precipitation: 200 to 1,000 mm of rain per year Vegetation: Aromatic herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano), shrubs, acacia, chamise, grasses Location: West coastal regions between 30 and 40 North and South latitude Other: Plants have adapted to fire caused by the frequent lightning that occurs in the hot, dry summers. Example: Middelburg, South Africa escription: Shrublands include regions such as chaparral, woodland and savanna. Shrublands are the areas that are located in west coastal regions between 30 and 40 North and South latitude. Some of the places would include southern California, Chile, Mexico, areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and southwest parts of Africa and Australia. These regions are usually found surrounding deserts and grasslands. Shrublands usually get more rain than deserts and grasslands but less than forested areas. Shrublands typically receive between 200 to 1,000 millimeters of rain a year. This rain is unpredictable, varying from month to month. There is a noticeable dry season and wet season. The shrublands are made up of shrubs or short trees. Many shrubs thrive on steep, rocky slopes. There is usually not enough rain to support tall trees. Shrublands are usually fairly open so grasses and other short plants grow between the shrubs. In the areas with little rainfall, plants have adapted to drought-like conditions. Many plants have small, needle-like leaves that help to conserve water. Some have leaves with waxy coatings and leaves that reflect the sunlight. Several plants have developed fire-resistant adaptations to survive the frequent fires that occur during the dry season. 11 Shaw High School

12 Tundra Temperature: -40 C to 18 C Precipitation: 150 to 250 mm of rain per year Vegetation: Almost no trees due to short growing season and permafrost; lichens, mosses, grasses, sedges, shrubs Location: egions south of the ice caps of the Arctic and extending across North America, Europe, and Siberia (high mountain tops) Other: Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturia, meaning "treeless plain"; it is the coldest of the biomes Example: Yakutsk, ussia escription: The tundra is the coldest of the biomes. It also receives low amounts of precipitation, making the tundra similar to a desert. Tundra is found in the regions just below the ice caps of the Arctic, extending across North America, to Europe, and Siberia in Asia. Much of Alaska and about half of Canada are in the tundra biome. Tundra is also found at the tops of very high mountains elsewhere in the world. Temperatures are frequently extremely cold, but can get warm in the summers. Tundra winters are long, dark, and cold, with mean temperatures below 0 C for six to 10 months of the year. The temperatures are so cold that there is a layer of permanently frozen ground below the surface, called permafrost. This permafrost is a defining characteristic of the tundra biome. In the tundra summers, the top layer of soil thaws only a few inches down, providing a growing surface for the roots of vegetation. Precipitation in the tundra totals 150 to 250 mm a year, including melted snow. That's less than most of the world's greatest deserts! Still, the tundra is usually a wet place because the low temperatures cause evaporation of water to be slow. Much of the arctic has rain and fog in the summers, and water gathers in bogs and ponds. Vegetation in the tundra has adapted to the cold and the short growing season. Mosses, sedges, and lichens are common, while few trees grow in the tundra. The trees that do manage to grow stay close to the ground so they are insulated by snow during the cold winters

13 Why Are There ifferent Environments? Activities Biome isplay You will make a free-standing biome display that meets the following characteristics: 1. Biome Name, in letters at least 1 inch tall. 2. A written description of the biome summarizing the biotic and abiotic factors. a) Can be single or double spaced. Length to be between 1/2 and 1 page. 3. A chart of the average precipitation for one month, gathered for one year. 4. A chart of the average temperature for one month, gathered for one year. 5. A graph plotting temperature and precipitation on the same paper. 6. Food web, using the common names (not pictures) of the common plants and animals found in the biome and include the following: Animals, green plants, fungus (by name), animals found near or in the ground, bacteria (by name) 7. Construct a pyramid of energy for the biome using the names of common plants and animals you have researched. 8. A labeled diagram of a typical soil profile of the biome. 9. A map of North America with the biome colored or highlighted. 10.List two organisms in that biome that illustrate mutualism. 11.List two organisms in the biome that illustrate commensalism. 12.List two organisms in the biome that illustrate parasitism. 13.List a common example of interspecific competition. 14.List National Parks and Monuments found in the biome. Tell the location (state, province, or country if outside Canada or the U.S.) 15.Identify the main causes of environmental damage. 16.Identify solutions that are developed or being developed to correct this environmental problem. 17.Various pictures typical of your biome. May be photocopied and colored, may be originals which come from magazines (your own, not the schools) newspapers, and so forth, May be hand drawn or computer drawn. Biome Biomes s and Climate 1. Separate this page and the next one from the rest of the book. Label the continents. 2. Using the climograph for your biome: a) What is the average temperature in January? July? b) What is the average precipitation in April? October? c) In terms of temperature and precipitation, describe both summers and winters. For example, you could say that summers are very hot and very wet, while winters are frigid and very dry. 3. In your group, research your assigned biome. You will need to look at all of the biomes in order to determine some of the following information: a) A specific place on Earth where this biome can be found b) On a scale of 1-4, how hot the biome is c) On a scale of 1-4, how greatly the temperature ranges d) On a scale of 1-4, how much precipitation the biome gets e) On a scale of 1-4, approximate height of vegetation f) A summary of this biome in less than 30 words 4. Present your research from #3. As you present, other students will be filling out a biome strip and will place it in the correct place on the map. 13 Shaw High School

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17 What o Living Things Need to Survive? What o Living Things Need to Survive? How many organisms are in an ecosystem and where they are is limited by how well the ecosystem recycles materials and by how much food, water, space and shelter is available. True or False? 1. We can survive without food for 4 to 6 weeks. T / F 2. All living things require food, water, space and shelter. T / F 3. The carrying capacity of an ecosystem for an organism is the maximum number of that organism that can survive. T / F About Basic Needs Inside of biomes, there can be trillions of living things. Those living things can be inside of completely different environments, even though the general climate is very similar. Think about the Cleveland area, for example. There are ponds, forests, cities, hills and even a lake! Areas within a biome like these can represent a different ecosystem because of the different materials available and the different living things that make up that particular area. It's not easy to say that one ecosystem starts at one place and ends at another. It is true that ecosystems influence other ecosystems, and biomes influence other biomes. In fact, scientists even like to talk about the butterfly effect : the way a butterfly flaps its wings here in North America could potentially affect whether there's rain tomorrow in China! Since the entire world is connected, the best place to start with ecosystems is to talk about what is necessary to have an ecosystem. Think about what you need in order to survive. octors say that you can survive 4 to 6 weeks without food and at most 10 days without water. It's clear that all living things need food and water, in some form, even if food comes from the sun or water comes from the air. But what else do you really need? Believe it or not, you need space. All living things require space, so that they can get their food and water, especially if they have to hunt down that food. The other surprising need of all living things is shelter of some sort. Many living things are capable of making their own shelter (like a snail has a shell or a human builds homes), but all living things have fragile parts that need to be protected from the environment. epending on how much food, water, space and shelter is available in the ecosystem, a certain amount of organisms will be able to survive in the ecosystem. The maximum number of a particular organism that can survive is called the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for that organism. More importantly, a healthy ecosystem also recycles materials. This means that after a deer eats the leaves off of a tree, the deer poop can then be decomposed by bacteria and worms into the soil, where plants use it for nutrients to make new leaves. This also means that a river carries water from the top of a mountain, and that water collects in a lake. The water from that lake evaporates into the atmosphere, falling as rain onto the mountain, where rivers take it back down into the lake. True or False? 1. We can survive without food for 4 to 6 weeks. T / F 2. All living things require food, water, space and shelter. T / F 3. The carrying capacity of an ecosystem for an organism is the maximum number of that organism that can survive. T / F 17 Shaw High School

18 Questions o you remember? 1. raw a picture showing the four basic needs of living things. 2. Explain the butterfly effect in your own words. 3. What does it mean that an ecosystem recycles materials? Think about it! 4. Pick two ecosystems (areas) from different biomes that you are familiar with and contrast them in three ways. 5. What would happen if organisms could not find shelter? What about space? o something! 6. Imagine that you were given a farm the size of Shaw's parking lot. What animals do you think you could raise on this farm? What would the carrying capacity be for each one? For example, if I wanted to raise cows on the farm, I might say that the carrying capacity for cows is 4. emember? 7. What is a gene? 8. Why is it that mutations in body cells do not affect offspring? 9. Are stem cells differentiated? How do you know? 10.What is climate, in your own words? Activities Basic Needs of Organisms 1. What are at least ten basic needs that you have in order to survive? 2. The four basic needs that all animals have are: food, water, space and shelter. In your own life, how do you get these basic needs? 3. Get three environments. For each of these three environments, answer (you should have six total responses for this question): a) What is the basic need that is the hardest to get for animals in this environment? b) What is the basic need that is the easiest to get for animals in this environment? 4. Get three animals. For each of these animals, answer (you should have six total responses for this question): a) Which of the basic needs is it the hardest to get for this animal? b) Which of the basic needs is it the easiest to get for this animal? 5. Given the three animals, three environments, and your own basic needs, write the four basic needs in order of how hard they are to fulfill, from easiest to hardest. Explain your choices in one paragraph

19 What o Living Things Need to Survive? Predator and Prey Producer (plant): You will receive energy cards from the sun If you meet the decomposer, you get half of their energy cards Primary consumer (herbivore): You will receive an energy card each time you visit a plant Secondary consumer (carnivore): If you meet a primary consumer, you get one energy card If you meet another secondary consumer, the one who has more energy gets one card ecomposer: You can take an energy card from any consumer 1. After you've played the game, think about your role in the game. Who were you looking for? Who were you avoiding? Why? 2. What about the other roles? Who was avoiding who? Which role is the easiest? 19 Shaw High School

20 What is an Environment? Explain how living things interact with biotic and abiotic parts of the environment (for example: predation, competition, natural disasters and weather). "How dinosaurs really went extinct" True or False? Biotic parts of the environment are not alive. T / F Primary consumers feed on plants. T / F Secondary consumers can feed on plants or animals. T / F The abiotic parts of the environment can affect the biotic parts. T / F About Biotic and Abiotic When we talk about biomes, climates and ecosystems, we're talking about different ways to describe the living and non-living things around us. Climate determines the type of biome, which

21 What is an Environment? in turn determines the ecosystems that can exist. Inside any ecosystem, we can divide everything into two large groups: abiotic and biotic. The biotic part of the environment is easy to understand: since bio means alive, you know that these must be the living things in the environment. All animals, plants, bacteria, fungi and protists are part of the biotic part of the environment. We also know that these living things interact with each other. Plants are often known as producers, because they take energy from the sun and turn it into usable energy for animals. Animals are often divided into primary consumers and secondary consumers. The primary consumers eat the producers, and the secondary consumers eat the primary consumers. Some animals can act as primary and secondary consumers, like humans (we can eat plants and animals). Some animals, bacteria and fungi act as decomposers, breaking down dead organic matter so that the producers can reuse it. So, what is meant by the abiotic part of the ecosystem? It's the opposite of the biotic, which means that it's all the non-living parts of the environment. Abiotic includes sunlight, amount of water, amount of shade and the rockiness of the land. But we can take this one step further: the biotic can affect the abiotic and the abiotic can affect the biotic. Animals can drink and use up water; too much sun can kill plants. There are thousands of ways Mutualism between clownfish and sea anemone that the different parts of an ecosystem interact that are all equally important. For example, if the sun kills all the plants that the animals eat, then the animals will die and will not use up the water. There are a lot of different interactions that happen between abiotic and biotic parts of the environment, but there are also several important interactions that happen among the biotic parts of the environment: Type of relationship escription of relationship First organism in relationship Second organism in relationship Parasitism When one organism benefits from and harms another organism while it's still alive Parasite benefits Host harmed Predation When one organism feeds off another organism by killing it Predator benefits Prey killed Commensalism When one organism benefits from Commensal benefits another organism without harming it or helping it Host unaffected Mutualism When two organisms help each other Benefits Benefits Competition When two organisms try to get the same resources and end up harming each other Harmed Harmed 21 Shaw High School

22 True or False? Biotic parts of the environment are not alive. T / F Primary consumers feed on plants. T / F Secondary consumers can feed on plants or animals. T / F The abiotic parts of the environment can affect the biotic parts. T / F Questions o you remember? 1. efine the four major roles of the biotic part of the ecosystem in your own words. 2. ifferentiate biotic from abiotic. 3. Classify each of the following interactions according to the role that they play: Ex: Hail injures cattle, answer: abiotic affects biotic a) A hurricane drives buffalo from their watering hole b) A snowstorm creates an avalanche that destroys a forest c) Ice on the north pole reflects sunlight away from Earth d) A giraffe eats a leaf on a tree e) Humans drill through rock to find precious metals Think about it! 4. Come up with an example for three of the five interactions in the table. 5. List three biotic and three abiotic factors for a biome of your choice. o something! 6. Make a three-way Venn diagram (page Error: eference source not found) for three of the types of interactions from the chart. For example, you can compare mutualism, parasitism and commensalism: you would need to know how they are all unique, what they all have in common and how each pair (mutualism & parasitism, mutualism & commensalism, parasitism & commensalism) has something in common. emember? 7. In terms of homozygous, heterozygous, dominant and recessive, label: a) HH b) Mm c) bb 8. Why could GM food be bad for you? 9. List at least five different types of precipitation (you need to come up with one of them on your own). 10.Explain the butterfly effect in your own words. Activities Mutualism 1. Find an example of a mutualistic relationship from magazines, books, or the internet. a) What are the two organisms? b) How does each one benefit from the relationship? 2. esign an experiment to determine whether or not this relationship is actually mutual. a) Write out the experiment, including the hypothesis, control and experimental groups. b) What result would tell you that it was a mutualistic relationship?

23 What is an Environment? Build Your Own Ecosystem 1. Come up with an ecosystem of your own. Give it a name and a specific location. 2. Name at least three abiotic factors and three biotic factors in your ecosystem. You must be specific and include at least one animal! 3. escribe four relationships between abiotic and biotic factors. For example, if you have a cheetah (a biotic factor) and high temperatures (an abiotic factor) in your ecosystem, then you can write, High temperatures affect the cheetah by causing it to sleep more. 4. For one of the animals in your ecosystem, describe how it meets the four basic needs. 23 Shaw High School

24 How o Change Over Time? emember that a change in gene frequency in a population over the course of years is evolution. Explain that the genetic differences of organisms within a species increases the chances that at least some members of a species will survive under changing environmental conditions. True or False? 1. Gene frequency is the percentage of individuals in a population that have a certain characteristic. T / F 2. Only biotic factors affect the evolution of living things within a biome. T / F 3. Evolution happens, but cannot be measured. T / F About and Evolution In biology, we talk about organisms alone and in groups. Up to this unit, we've been concerned mainly with individual organisms, which together form populations. Those populations of organisms combine with other populations in order to form communities, and those communities come together with abiotic factors to form entire ecosystems. As we've already seen, those ecosystems can be grouped together as a biome when they exhibit similar climates. So, when we study ecosystems and evolution, we are concerned with how the populations in those communities change. When you look at a population of humans, there are always certain similarities and differences that you notice. For instance, skin color, hair type and color, eye color, average height are all genetic characteristics that are the easiest to notice about people. Biologists don't just study humans; we study all sorts of living things. Imagine that you were looking in a field of butterflies: you see thousands that have yellow and black coloring and also a few dozen that have blue and black coloring. You also notice that there are hundreds of birds hunting the butterflies. Before we look at the behavior of the birds, we can make a conclusion about the gene frequency of the yellow color among the butterflies. Specifically, we can say that the gene frequency of yellow is around 99%, because 99% of the butterflies have yellow instead of blue. Similarly, we can say that the gene frequency of blue is about 1% for this population of butterflies. Gene frequency, or the percentage of individuals in a population that have a certain characteristic, is a way to measure evolution. Going back to the butterflies and the birds, you notice that the birds are only hunting the yellow and black butterflies. For some reason, they are leaving the blue and black butterflies alone. You leave and come back a week later to the same field to find that there are only a few hundred butterflies; what's more, half of them are now blue and black butterflies! This is an example of evolution in this case, the population of butterflies has changed. The gene frequency of yellow coloring has decreased to about 50% because of changing environmental conditions. What were the changing environmental conditions? The birds that were Example of a butterfly hunting the butterflies made the change in the butterfly population. Even though the total number of butterflies has

25 How o Change Over Time? decreased, the blue and black butterflies are surviving better because of the hunting patterns of the birds. We have seen that there are many factors that go into making a biome: temperature, precipitation, animals, plants, mountains, rivers, oceans, etc. All of these factors affect the evolution of the living things within the biome. True or False? 1. Gene frequency is the percentage of individuals in a population that have a certain characteristic. T / F 2. Only biotic factors affect the evolution of living things within a biome. T / F 3. Evolution happens, but cannot be measured. T / F Questions o you remember? 1. What is the biotic relationship between the yellow and black butterflies and the blue and black butterflies that feed on the same plants? Explain. 2. What is the biotic relationship between the butterflies and the birds? Explain. 3. Calculate the gene frequencies if there were 150 yellow and black butterflies and 100 blue and black butterflies in the field. Think about it! 4. List at least two reasons that the birds could be only eating the yellow and black butterflies. 5. Predict what would happen if the climate became mostly cloudy, changing the birds' vision so that both types of butterflies appear to be the same. What type of interaction is this, in terms of biotic and abiotic factors? o something! 6. Consider the Forest Hills ecosystem. Inside the ecosystem, among other things, are bushes, trees, and rabbits. a) Come up with any genetic characteristic for the rabbits that has two forms (in the butterfly example, this was the yellow and blue colors). This can be something like the color of fur, type of nose, length of ears, etc. b) Come up with genetic frequencies for these two forms, as percentages. Keep in mind that all percentages need to add up to 100%. c) What do you think will happen to these gene frequencies if snakes are introduced to Forest Hills? Assume that evolution will happen, and list the gene frequencies after the snakes are introduced. emember? 7. Paraphrase the main experiment that Mendel performed with pea plants in one paragraph. 8. State the relationship between climate and biomes. 9. What would happen if organisms could not find shelter? What about space? 10.efine the four major roles of the biotic part of the ecosystem in your own words. 25 Shaw High School

26 Activities Variation 1. Choose three genetic characteristics in you and the people you know to study. Write these down! 2. You will examine three members of your family/friends and three students. If you choose characteristics that depend on gender, make sure you only talk to people who are the same gender. Make a table showing your results and calculate the gene frequencies for each characteristic. You can use the table below: First name of person Characteristic 1: Characteristic 2: Characteristic 3: Family / Friends Students 3. Looking at this characteristic in your family, what trends do you notice? 4. Looking at this characteristic in other students, what trends do you notice? Choose an Animal Take an animal card escribe 3-5 features of the animal that make it unique What is an environment that the animal lives in? What characteristics does the animal have that makes it fit for this environment? Choose another environment. What characteristics does the animal have that would be selected for in future generations? 6. Write a Newspaper Article (page Error: eference source not found) about how one of these animals evolved by natural selection into the animal that it is today. Gene Frequency In this activity, you will be reproducing bacteria in a biome of your choice. You will figure out which bacteria survive and which die depending on the environment that you choose. Finally, you will calculate the gene frequencies and see if they changed from the beginning to the end. Below, you will find a table which shows the three genes, and the descriptions of their alleles ( means dominant, means recessive)

27 How o Change Over Time? Gene Frequency Gene Allele escription of the Allele om. Able to withstand temperatures below 0 C 1st Gene: Temperature ec. Able to withstand temperatures above 100 C 2nd Gene: Water Can survive under water Cannot survive under water, but can survive in ice 3rd Gene: Sunlight Uses sunlight for energy oesn't use sunlight for energy, but requires very little food You will start with a total of 10 bacteria that all have this gene. Some bacteria are dominant for some genes and recessive for others. In the table below, I have started you off by telling you which alleles (ominant or ecessive) each bacteria (A - J) will have for each gene. Bacteria Name P1 Generation A B C E F G H I J 1 Gene: Temperature om. 2nd Gene: Water ec. 3rd Gene: Sunlight om. st 1. Is bacteria #1 dominant or recessive for the 1st gene? Is bacteria #6 dominant or recessive for the third gene? 2. Choose a biome for these bacteria and write it down. 3. ight now, calculate the initial gene frequency for each dominant and recessive allele and record it in the chart below. The first gene has been calculated for you: 6 out of the 10 bacteria are dominant for the first gene, so the gene frequency is 60% dominant and 40% recessive. Gene st 1 Gene: Temperature 2 nd Gene: Water rd 3 Gene: Sunlight Allele Initial Gene Frequency 60% 40% You are going to simulate evolution by deciding which 5 bacteria in the P1 generation survive to the F1 generation. Once you decide which five will survive, you will then reproduce each bacteria to make a total of 10 bacteria in the next generation. For example, if you choose that bacteria A,, E, I and J should survive to the F1, then you will have: 27 Shaw High School

28 Gene Frequency F1 Generation Bacteria Name A A E E I I J J 1 Gene: Temperature 2nd Gene: Water 3rd Gene: Sunlight st 4. Go ahead and make the F1 generation. For each bacteria that you selected, why did you pick it? Fill in the table below with your choices. F1 Generation Bacteria Name 1st Gene: Temperature 2nd Gene: Water 3rd Gene: Sunlight 5. Make the F2 generation by taking 5 of the above bacteria and making copies of each one. F2 Generation Bacteria Name 1st Gene: Temperature 2nd Gene: Water 3rd Gene: Sunlight 6. Make the F3 generation by taking 5 of the above bacteria and making copies of each one. F3 Generation Bacteria Name 1st Gene: Temperature 2nd Gene: Water 3rd Gene: Sunlight 7. Calculate the final gene frequencies:

29 How o Change Over Time? Gene Frequency Gene st 1 Gene: Temperature 2nd Gene: Water 3rd Gene: Sunlight Allele Final Gene Frequency 8. Compare the initial and final gene frequencies: a) Which allele made the biggest jump in frequency from the P1 generation to the F3 generation? b) id evolution happen? Why or why not? Use the definition of evolution in your response. c) Was this an example of directional selection? Why or why not? See page Error: eference source not found for an explanation of directional selection. d) Choose another biome. Which bacteria do you think would have done the best in this new biome? Beetles, Part 2 Take your 16 beetles from part one (ask me or another student if you do not have any beetles) and separate the four beetles that survived. At random, take two of the beetles and breed them by creating sixteen more beetles in the second generation. Make sure to only include characteristics from the two parents, and try to mix up those characteristics in each member of the second generation. Hand in your two parents, sixteen children and responses to the following questions: 1. What are three observations that you can make about the children? 2. Are all of these children well suited for their environment? Why or why not? 3. Choose one of the aspects of your environment and change it. Which beetles in the second generation are best suited for this new environment? Why? 4. Think about what beetles will be around in ten generations. What would you expect them to look like? 29 Shaw High School

30 Why are There So Many Butterflies? Understand how the diversity in an ecosystem and the adaptation of organisms to an ecosystem relates to structures and their functions in living organisms. Natural selection helps explain the diversity of life. True or False? 1. Natural selection has to do with adaptations made by an individual. T / F 2. iversity is something that only biologists study. T / F 3. An adaptation is a change that an organism makes in response to its environment. T/F About iversity and Adaptation We hear a lot about diversity in our society. We understand diversity in humans to mean how we speak different languages, eat different foods, have different value systems or how we look different. Many types of scientists study diversity, like anthropologists who study social relationships, linguists who study languages, and dieticians who study nutrition. Biologists are mostly concerned with the genetic diversity between populations. When we consider biomes, now we're concerned with the diversity among populations in an ecosystem. What does this all mean? Well, different populations make different adaptations to their environment. If we're studying the tundra, all living things need to deal with the cold. A polar bear will gain more fat in order to keep its heat inside; an arctic fox will keep warm blood from reaching its feet so that it doesn't lose heat to the ground; shrubs will grow a protective coating around their stems to protect them from low temperatures and high winds. All of these adaptations allow these living things to live in the tundra. You can see how diversity and adaptions are linked together: organisms find diverse ways to adapt to their environments. We can even introduce another concept that we've learned, natural selection! The organisms that are able to adapt better to their environment survive better, which means that they are more likely to reproduce. If we go back to the example of the butterflies and birds, it's completely possible that there were no blue and black butterflies a few weeks before we visited the field. It's very likely that among the thousands of butterflies, some mutations will happen: one of them happened to change the color of the butterfly from yellow to blue. This caused the butterfly population to have higher diversity. When birds started to hunt the yellow and black butterflies, the population adapted to the change in the environment by favoring the blue and black butterflies. Natural selection happened when those blue and black butterflies reproduced, eventually making more that had the same coloring! True or False? 1. Natural selection has to do with adaptations made by an individual. T / F 2. iversity is something that only biologists study. T / F 3. An adaptation is a change that an organism makes in response to its environment. T/F Questions o you remember? 1. How are diversity and adaptation related?

31 Why are There So Many Butterflies? 2. Explain natural selection using terms from this chapter. 3. efine biological diversity in your own words. Think about it! 4. Choose an animal that you are familiar with. Explain how different populations of this animal are diverse, in three ways. 5. Select a biome and a living thing. What sorts of adaptations has this living thing made in order to survive in this biome? o something! 6. o T-Shirt Art for the topic: diversity (see page Error: eference source not found). emember? 7. Why is it that mutations in body cells do not affect offspring? 8. What does it mean that an ecosystem recycles materials? 9. ifferentiate biotic from abiotic. 10.What is the biotic relationship between the yellow and black butterflies and the blue and black butterflies that feed on the same plants? Explain. Activities Natural Selection and Animals 1. Take an animal card. Name 3-5 characteristics (that you can see, or that you read about) that make this animal unique. 2. What environment is this animal usually found in? 3. Explain two advantageous characteristics that the animal has which makes it fit for its environment. 4. Choose any other environment. What are some advantageous characteristics that the animal would have in this foreign environment? Build Your Own Ecosystem Ecosystem,, Part 2 You will use your ecosystem from part one that you created. If you did not create an ecosystem, find a location for your ecosystem (it can be anywhere) and name three biotic factors (living things) in your ecosystem. Assume that your ecosystem is the size of Forest Hills to do the following: 1. Talk to two people and ask them for a natural disaster which could happen in your ecosystem. For each: a) Write down their name b) Write down the natural disaster c) Predict what would happen to the carrying capacity of each of your three biotic factors due to this natural disaster. Assume that some living things are capable of surviving this natural disaster! 2. Make a food web for your ecosystem. Add enough biotic factors so that you get a total of at least 8 organisms, including producers, primary consumers and secondary consumers! 31 Shaw High School

32 Adaptive adiation For this activity, you will be pretending to be a bird that is trying to get food. The scenario is that you and all of the other birds in the class end up on a deserted island. It is a large island, and every area (desk) has a different type of food and can support a different number of birds. You are given a choice of beaks (tool) and you have to figure out which is the best area for you to settle. You have five minutes to locate an area and a beak that you think will maximize your chance for survival. Try eating different seeds with different beaks. At the end of five minutes, we will total up the birds in each area, and make note of the beak that each bird has chosen. 1. Which area and tool did you choose? Why? 2. Would you have survived? Why or why not? 3. What is adaptive radiation? 4. How did this exercise demonstrate adaptive radiation? 5. What would have happened if all of the seeds had been the same? 6. Give an example of adaptive radiation in a living thing that you are familiar with. Build Your Own Creature, Part 1 In this activity you will construct imaginary creatures and environments from the lists of characteristics. Be creative since these creatures and environments do not have to behave like anything here on Earth. 1. Obtain a creature card from your teacher, then make a single choice from each of the 6 creature characteristics. 2. Once you have made all your choices, fill out your creature card (including a name for your creature) and put it in the class creature box. 3. epeat this process two more times to construct two more creatures. Make sure you create significantly different creatures each time. 4. Obtain three environment cards from your teacher then create an interesting environment. (Note: The environments you create in no way need to match the creatures you have already created.) 5. ecord your choices on your environment card and then put it in the environment box. 6. epeat this process two additional times, making sure that each environment you create is different. 7. Once every group has finished, draw a single creature card and a single environment card from each box. This will be your first creature/environment pair to study. Once each group has drawn their first pair, each group will draw a second creature/environment pair. epeat this process again so that each group has a third creature/environment pair. 8. Your group should now have three creature/environment pairs to study. In this portion of the activity, we want to determine the success of each creature in the environment with which it was paired. To do this we will compare each creature characteristic and environment characteristic one pairing at a time. To score your creatures, use the following set of rules. a) Award one point if the creature characteristic helps your creature survive in that environment. For example, if the creature characteristic chosen from group #1 is "uses methane gas" and the corresponding environment characteristic from group #1 is "methane gas", then your creature will earn one point. b) Award zero points if the creature characteristic and environment characteristic have no effect on your creature's success. For example, if the creature characteristic chosen from group #6 is "has the ability to dig" and the corresponding environment characteristic chosen from group #6 is "multi-colored terrain", then your creature will earn zero points. c) Subtract one point if the environment characteristic restricts your creature's ability to survive. For example, if the creature characteristic chosen from group #1 is "uses

33 Why are There So Many Butterflies? Build Your Own Creature, Part 1 oxygen" and the corresponding environment characteristic from group #1 is "carbon dioxide gas", then your creature will lose one point. 9. Score each pair of creature and environmental characteristics. Once you are done, record the total score, the creature and the environment. 10.Would you rate the creature with the greatest score as having been very successful, moderately successful, or not successful in its environment? escribe the success or failure of the interaction between the creature and its environment for each set of characteristics. 11.Give an example of an organism found on Earth that has a unique characteristic which makes it specifically suited to live in a particular habitat. 12.Sometimes the characteristic that an organism has that makes it successful in its natural environment becomes useless when the organism is placed in another environment. escribe a real creature and environment found on Earth that would be an example of this situation. 13.What one change would you make to your creature to make it more successful in the environment with which it was paired? Explain why you chose to make this change. If you feel no changes are needed for this creature, choose one of your less successful creatures to answer this question. OGT eview 1. Mosquitoes carry malaria and other diseases. In order to control mosquito populations, a powerful pesticide called T was used for many years. T entered lakes, ponds, and rivers and accumulated in the tissues of fish. When birds, such as eagles, consumed the fish, they produced eggs with very thin shells. The thin-shelled eggs broke when the parents sat on them and the populations of eagles and other birds suffered. The U.S. government banned the use of T in How did the banning of T most likely affect the population of bald eagles in the United States? a) The eagle population rapidly declined after the banning of T. b) The eagle population was not affected by the banning of T. c) The eagle population slowly increased after the banning of T. d) The eagle population increased and then rapidly decreased after the banning of T. 2. A student has set up an artificial ecosystem for a class project. This ecosystem has producers, first-level consumers, second-level consumers, and third-level consumers. By accident, a chemical enters the ecosystem and kills all of the first-level consumers. Which group(s) of organisms will most likely survive? a) producers b) second-level consumers c) second-level and third-level consumers d) third-level consumers and producers Use the following information to answer questions #3 and 4. A group of students designs an experiment to test how an herbicide affects pepper plants and weeds. Eight plots are tested, each of which holds 25 pepper plants and a variety of weeds. Plots 1 and 2 are not treated; plots 3 8 are treated with varying amounts of weed-killing herbicide. The weeds are counted in each plot during week 1. The herbicide is applied during week 2, and the weeds are counted again in week 3. The data are shown in the table below. 33 Shaw High School

34 3. What factor most likely accounts for the pepper plants that died in plots 1 and 2 prior to producing peppers? a) increased consumption of weeds by insects b) competition between weeds and pepper plants c) a lack of nutrients in the soil resulting from herbicide application d) a reduction in the amount of sunlight received by weeds growing under pepper plants 4. In a follow-up study, a student allows weeds to grow in a previously cleared plot for several weeks. The student counts the number of weeds and then treats the plot with the recommended dose of herbicide. The student observes that several weeds survive and their offspring soon replace the weeds that were killed by the initial application of the herbicide. Propose a hypothesis to explain why several of the weeds survived the herbicide application. Explain how this hypothesis could be tested. espond in the space provided in your Answer ocument. (2 points) 5. ue to a loss of habitat, hunting, drought, disease, and inbreeding, the cheetah population has declined in number and is close to extinction. The current cheetah population has very little genetic variation. Which is a result of the limited genetic variation in the current cheetah population compared to earlier cheetah populations with more variation? a) Current populations of cheetahs are more resistant to diseases. b) The survival rate of young cheetahs is increased in current populations. c) Current populations of cheetahs are less likely to be able to adapt to environmental changes. d) Current populations of cheetahs are able to interbreed with other species, increasing genetic variation