Unit 2: The Living World: Biodiversity

Explain levels of biodiversity and their importance to ecosystems.

• Biodiversity in an ecosystem includes genetic, species, and habitat diversity.
• The more genetically diverse a population is, the better it can respond to environmental stressors. Additionally, a population bottleneck can lead to a loss of genetic diversity.
• Ecosystems that have a larger number of species are more likely to recover from disruptions.
• Loss of habitat leads to a loss of specialist species, followed by a loss of generalist species. It also leads to reduced numbers of species that have large territorial requirements.
• Species richness refers to the number of different species found in an ecosystem.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Describe ecosystem services.

• There are four categories of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Describe the results of human disruptions to ecosystem services.

• Anthropogenic activities can disrupt ecosystem services, potentially resulting in economic and ecological consequences.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Describe island biogeography.

• Island biogeography is the study of the ecological relationships and distribution of organisms on islands, and of these organisms’ community structures.
• Islands have been colonized in the past by new species arriving from elsewhere.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Describe the role of island biogeography in evolution.

• Many island species have evolved to be specialists versus generalists because of the limited resources, such as food and territory, on most islands. The long-term survival of specialists may be jeopardized if and when invasive species, typically generalists, are introduced and outcompete the specialists.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Describe ecological tolerance.

• Ecological tolerance refers to the range of conditions, such as temperature, salinity, flow rate, and sunlight that an organism can endure before injury or death results.
• Ecological tolerance can apply to individuals and to species.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Explain how natural disruptions, both short- and long-term, impact an ecosystem.

• Natural disruptions to ecosystems have environmental consequences that may, for a given occurrence, be as great as, or greater than, many human-made disruptions.
• Earth system processes operate on a range of scales in terms of time. Processes can be periodic, episodic, or random.
• Earth’s climate has changed over geological time for many reasons.
• Sea level has varied significantly as a result of changes in the amount of glacial ice on Earth over geological time.
• Major environmental change or upheaval commonly results in large swathes of habitat changes.
• Wildlife engages in both short- and long-term migration for a variety of reasons, including natural disruptions.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Describe how organisms adapt to their environment.

• Organisms adapt to their environment over time, both in short- and long-term scales, via incremental changes at the genetic level.
• Environmental changes, either sudden or gradual, may threaten a species’ survival, requiring individuals to alter behaviors, move, or perish.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Describe ecological succession.

• There are two main types of ecological succession: primary and secondary succession.
• A keystone species in an ecosystem is a species whose activities have a particularly significant role in determining community structure.
• An indicator species is a plant or animal that, by its presence, abundance, scarcity, or chemical composition, demonstrates that some distinctive aspect of the character or quality of an ecosystem is present.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.

Describe the effect of ecological succession on ecosystems.

• Pioneer members of an early successional species commonly move into unoccupied habitat and over time adapt to its particular conditions, which may result in the origin of new species.
• Succession in a disturbed ecosystem will affect the total biomass, species richness, and net productivity over time.
• Enduring understanding ERT-2: Ecosystems have structure and diversity that change over time.