What is your biodiversity IQ? Name: Date: Period: Read each question carefully. Circle all the answers that apply. 1. Which of the following could the fastest human outrun in a 100 yard race? a. Cheetah b. Wart hog c. Three toed sloth d. Grizzly bear e. Domestic cat f. Wild turkey 2. Which of the following actually exist a. Ants that milk aphids for food b. Frogs that eat their own fertilized eggs, then throw up the babies that hatch in their stomachs c. Slime molds that creep across the ground d. Flowers that trick insects into mating with them. 3. Which one of the following best descries the work biodiversity? a. Another word for endangered species b. Another word for wildlife c. The variety of all life on earth d. A bunch of biographies 4. Which of the following are true statements about blackpoll warblers tiny birds that migrate between N. America & S. America each year? a. They use the stars for navigation. b. They make frequent pit stops at fast food restaurants c. They don t really need to migrate. d. If they burned gasoline for fuel instead of body fat, they d get 720,000 miles to the gallon! 5. What is the best thing you can do to control mosquitoes on a hot summer evening? a. Buy an electric bug zapper b. Install a backyard bat house c. Spray them with cans of insect repellent 6. The natural products on the left have been (or are) being developed into incredible medicines. Can you match them with medicines they ve inspired? a. Cortisone bread mold b. Penicillin white willow tree c. Aspirin vampire bat saliva 1
d. Medicine to unclog arteries wild yam 7. Which of the following would not be possible without fungi? a. Eating pepperoni & mushroom pizza b. Making bread c. Living in a world where dead things aren t lying all over the place d. Eating bleu cheese 8. What fraction of Los Angeles is paved? a. 1/10 b. 1 /4 c. 2/3 9. How many species of plants & animals have scientists indentified? a. 370 b. 650,000 c. More than 1.4 million 10. What s the most serious threat to biodiversity? a. Habitat loss b. Pollution c. Hunting 11. About how many new species are classified each year? a. 15 b. 50 c. 700 d. 5,000 12. Which of the following contribute to the amount of oxygen found in the earth s atmosphere? a. Trees b. Algae c. Grasslands d. Field mice 2
Introduction to Ecology & Biodiversity notes Environmental Science is an integrated science. An integrated science draws from many different fields such as biology, physics (energy and matter), chemistry (biosphere and matter, politicians, economists and sociologists. Four Major Areas of Study in Ecology 1. 2. Air 3. 4. Organisms Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary study of how humans and other organisms affect the physical environment. Ecology the study of interaction of the and things in the ecosystem. Environment everything that surrounds an Abiotic - Examples: Biotic - Examples: Biodiversity is the contraction of two words biological diversity. It means the variety of in the world. Biological diverse ecosystem is. 3
Value of maintaining biodiversity is. Twenty-five percent (25%) of all prescription medicine in the U.S. have ingredients that were derived from plants. Cures for disease could be found in remote areas of the world. Opposite of Biodiversity A is the growing of one species or organism Examples: lawn, cornfield Problems associated with a monoculture. Disease can spread quickly Extensive use of pesticides and herbicides Very labor intensive and energy intensive to maintain Indicator species Indicator organisms, sometimes called, are plant or animal known to be either particularly tolerant or particularly sensitive to. The of an organism can often be associated with a specific type or intensity of, and its presence can then be used to indicate polluted conditions relative to unimpacted conditions. Examples of indicator species 1. Trout need clear & cold water to survive. The disappearance for trout is an indicator that the water temperature may be affected or waters are polluted. 2. Mayfly larvae very sensitive to water pollution 3. Tubificid worms common to see a drastic increase in pollution if the water if polluted from sewage treatment wastes 4. Giant weed grass an indicator that there has been a disturbance in the wetland area 4
Biological Diversity How It Stops Disease from Spreading Name Date: Period: When a habitat is very diverse with a variety of different species, it is much healthier and more stable. One of the reasons for this is that disease doesn t spread as easily in a diverse community. If one species gets a disease, others of its kind are far enough away that disease is often stopped at the one or two individuals. Answer the following questions after the second simulation. 1. What does biological diversity mean? 2. Why didn t all the different trees get the disease? (Hint: genetics) 3. Why didn t the disease spread as fast among the Douglas firs as it did in the first simulation? 4. In which forest would you need to use more chemicals to control disease: the Douglas fir forest or the more diversified, old growth forest? Why? 5. Summarize what this simulation symbolized. 6. Which forest would have more diversity of wildlife? Why? 7a. If you cut down the variety in a area of forest you owned and replanted with one type of tree, what will happen to the wildlife that was adapted to the forest? 5
b. Will the fate happen to all wildlife? Explain. 8. Many species can only live/reproduce in one type of forest. The spotted owl is an example it can only live and successfully reproduce in old growth forests. If these old growth forests are cut down, it s unlikely this owl will survive. Environmentalists call it an indicator species. What does this mean? Why be concerned about ONE species? 9. Growing one plant, as is the case of growing only Douglas fir, is called monoculture. Give an example of growing one plant in your home and on a farm. Home Farm- 10. Why would you need to use more insecticides in monoculture? Is this good or bad? 11. If you wanted to encourage diverse wildlife in your town, what type of plants would you use around your house? 6
Solving Environmental Problems Environmental Sustainability is the ability of the to function indefinitely without going into a from the stresses imposed by human society on natural systems that life. Five Components in Solving an Environmental Problem 1. Scientific Assessment a. Gathering of or thru experiments and simulations. b. Scientific 2. Risk Analysis a. Using results of scientific to analyze the potential effects of intervention b. What could happen if a course of action were followed including any effects that might be generated? 3. Public Education a. When a clear can be made, the public be informed. Explain the Present available for action Probable Results of each choice 4. Political Action a. Through the elected officials, the, selects a course of action and implements. b. Wealth of legislation governing the environment. 5. Follow-through a. Results should be to see if it is solving the problem b. Evaluate and judge if the solution is working or the initial evaluation and modeling of the problem needs to be improved. Scientific Decision-Making Risk Assessment Estimating the involved in a certain action Compare and contrast the risks involved with other Once is done, results are evaluated with their relevance to the political, social and economic consideration. 7
The evaluation which includes the development of laws to regulate an problem is called. Helps us estimate the that an event will happen. Let s us set. Risk is inherent in all of our actions and in the environment. Example: 180 times more likely to get cancer from smoking than from drinking well water. Four Steps of Risk Assessment for Adverse Health Effects 1. Hazard identification Does the exposure to a cause an increased likelihood of an adverse health effect such as cancer or birth defect? 2. Dose-response assessment What is the relationship between amount of the and the of the adverse health effect? 3. Exposure Assessment How much, how often, how long? 4. Risk Characterization What is the of an individual or population having an adverse health effect? Cost-Benefit Analysis Some highly publicized problem have been found to cost an astronomically amount of to solve but do not pose a great threat as some less publicized problems. As a result the is beginning to use this cost-benefit analysis to address environmental problems that involve human health and safety. Helps form the laws to regulate the problem. Only as good as the used How do you put a on clean air? Process is useful but has. 8
Biodiversity Review Worksheet Matching: Choose the best word for each definition. 1. A way to test a hypothesis 2. How something looks 3. An educated guess 4. Growing one species in an area 5. All the variety of species in an ecosystem 6. Information collected during an experiment 7. The ability of an ecosystem to sustain life under stress 8. A set of steps used to solve a problem A. Monoculture B. Biodiversity C. Indicator species D. Aesthetic E. Environmental sustainability F. Risk assessment G. Cost benefit analysis H. Scientific method 9. One species that is monitored to determine the health of the ecosystem 10. Restating hypothesis and explaining results of an experiment 11. Determining how much money is worth spending on the problem 12. Evaluating possible solutions with their risks I. Hypothesis J. Data K. Experiment L. Conclusion Completion: Answer the following questions. 1. What are the necessary parts of a graph? 2. What is the difference between the independent variable and the dependent variable? 3. Why does disease spread so easily in a monoculture? 4. List the 5 steps to solving an environmental problem. 5. Why is educating the public an important step in solving environmental problems? 6. Why is biodiversity important? 9
Unit Learning Map Biodiversity Unit Mrs. Sim-Ecology PA Standard 4.3.10C: Explain the biodiversity as an indicatory of a healthy environment. 4.8.10 C: Analyze how human activities may cause changes in an ecosystem. Unit Essential Question(s): Why is biological diversity essential? Optional Instructional Tools: Disease simulation Biodiversity video Bubble lab Current Event Concept Concept Concept Concept Biological diversity Human Impact Solving environmental problems Lesson Essential Questions: Lesson Essential Questions: Lesson Essential Questions: Lesson Essential Questions: What makes an ecosystem biologically diverse? How do humans impact the diversity of an ecosystem? How are the steps of solving environmental problems used to investigate the environment? Vocabulary: Environmental science Ecology Monoculture Indicator species Aesthetic Abiotic Biotic Vocabulary: Vocabulary: Environmental sustainability Risk assessment Cost benefit analysis Scientific method Dependent variable Independent variable Constants Data Hypothesis Experiment Vocabulary: 10