Discussion Ideas

Chapter 33

Ecosystem Awareness

Many students are not at all aware of the features of the ecosystem in which they live. Describe the characteristics of the ecosystem where you are located. Include such features as climate, types of species living there, the nature of the dominant plant life, and how humans have intruded into the ecosystem. To make it especially interesting, be sure to include adaptations seen in the plants and animals that allow them to survive where they do (i.e., the adaptation of burrowing rodents to life on the prairie where they can safely flee the periodic, and characteristic, fires).

Law of Tolerance

In ecology, it is well known that each species has a range of each variable in which it does best. If a given variable (say, temperature) is out of the organism's optimal range for very long, the organism may become ill, fail to reproduce, migrate, or even die. Have students come up with examples of many types of human activities that cause certain environmental variables to go out of their normal range. Describe the potential effects on species.

Examples include a wide variety of pollutants, thermal pollution, acid rain, and pesticides.

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