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Science · Grade 12

Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Change

Learners explain where biomes occur using temperature, precipitation and altitude, then measure biodiversity quantitatively with species richness, evenness and Simpson's diversity index. They classify ecosystem services, trace trophic cascades from keystone species, compare the resistance and resilience of ecosystems with disturbance data, and evaluate evidence about whether a changed ecosystem has recovered or shifted to a new state.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 minutes
  • Ecosystems and biodiversity check: 10 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, highlight a text, label a picture, match pairs, type a number and put in order
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What learners will discover

  • Explain how temperature, precipitation and its seasonality (with altitude and rain shadows) determine the distribution of major biomes, and identify a biome from climate data.
  • Distinguish species richness from evenness, and calculate and compare Simpson's diversity index, D = 1 − Σp^2^, for real-style community samples.
  • Classify ecosystem services and explain how keystone species, foundation species and trophic cascades link biodiversity to ecosystem function.
  • Describe primary and secondary succession and use disturbance and recovery data to compare the resistance and resilience of ecosystems.
  • Evaluate claims, evidence and reasoning about whether an ecosystem under changed conditions has recovered or shifted to a new state.

Lessons

  1. Climate sets the stage: biomes 7 steps3 practiceabout 20 min
  2. Measuring biodiversity 8 steps4 practiceabout 25 min
  3. Ecosystem services and keystone species 8 steps5 practiceabout 25 min
  4. Succession, disturbance and resilience 8 steps5 practiceabout 22 min
  5. Recovered, or a new ecosystem? 6 steps4 practiceabout 23 min
  6. Ecosystems and biodiversity check 10 questions at the end

Keep exploring

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