Evidence of Work:
In this project, we were tasked with choosing an ecosystem and founding out how humans have a lasting impact on the environment, how that impact can be minimized, and how it can be prioritized. My group which consisted of myself, Chapin, Jada, and Emma decided on the arctic ecosystem and focused on the conservation of polar bears and what dependent and independent limiting factors have contributed to the mass deaths in their population recently compared to previous decades. As a solution we decided to create a fundraiser that would allow us to 'adopt' a polar bear for 25 dollars and the proceeds would go to the World Wildlife Fund that would use that money to save polar bears in any way possible.
Content
Carrying Capacity: The amount of living organisms that can fit and survive and ecosystem. This was used in this project by looking at how many organisms can fit in an ecosystem and more specifically we looked at how many polar bears and other living organisms in the arctic ecosystem
Abiotic/ Biotic: Abiotic factors are the non-living parts of the environment that affect organisms. Some of these include water, sunlight, oxygen, and temperature. Biotic factors are the living things that make up an ecosystem, like plants, animals, and bacteria
Carbon Cycle: The process by which carbon goes through photosynthesis and then enters back into the air through the decay of dead organisms and burning of fossil fuels.
Nitrogen Cycle: A process where nitrogen compounds are converted by nitrifying bacteria that allows it to be used by organism and transfer through the different trophic levels and create the nucleic acids and proteins that are essential for life.
Water Cycle: Process that water circulates from oceans, to atmosphere, and land through things like rain, rivers, and evaporation.
Individual to biosphere: Is the levels of organization in an ecosystem and goes as follows: a group of individuals make up a population, a group of populations make up a community, a group of communities make up an ecosystem, a group of ecosystems make up a biome, and a group of biomes make up the biosphere.
Mutualism: The association between two organisms that results in both benefiting. We used this in our ecosytstem project when looking into how different organisms interact in an ecosystem.
Commensalism: The type of symbiosis where one organism benefits and the other is not affected negatively nor positively. This was used again on our ecosystem posters where we looked into how different organisms interact
Parasitism: The kind of symbiosis where one species is a parasite, living in or on the other organism, harming the host. Some examples of this would be ticks, fleas, and leaches being hosted by things like humans, horses and dogs.
Predation: Predation occurs when on species preys on another, this creates a cycle of increased predators diminishing prey and then the lack of prey diminishing the preadator's population. For example lions and cheetahs preying on things like zebras and wildebeests.
Biodiversity: The variety of life in the biosphere and how they interact. It is built up of genes, species, communities of creatures, ecosystems, and biomes.
Limit Factors: Limit factors for a population include both abiotic and biotic factors. Some biotic factors include things like predation, competition, parasitism, and water & food. Some abiotic factors include natural disasters and human impact.
Energy Flow: Energy is transferred through the trophic levels and only 10% of the energy is passed on in each level. The trophic levels include the producers, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level consumers, and the apex predators.
Abiotic/ Biotic: Abiotic factors are the non-living parts of the environment that affect organisms. Some of these include water, sunlight, oxygen, and temperature. Biotic factors are the living things that make up an ecosystem, like plants, animals, and bacteria
Carbon Cycle: The process by which carbon goes through photosynthesis and then enters back into the air through the decay of dead organisms and burning of fossil fuels.
Nitrogen Cycle: A process where nitrogen compounds are converted by nitrifying bacteria that allows it to be used by organism and transfer through the different trophic levels and create the nucleic acids and proteins that are essential for life.
Water Cycle: Process that water circulates from oceans, to atmosphere, and land through things like rain, rivers, and evaporation.
Individual to biosphere: Is the levels of organization in an ecosystem and goes as follows: a group of individuals make up a population, a group of populations make up a community, a group of communities make up an ecosystem, a group of ecosystems make up a biome, and a group of biomes make up the biosphere.
Mutualism: The association between two organisms that results in both benefiting. We used this in our ecosytstem project when looking into how different organisms interact in an ecosystem.
Commensalism: The type of symbiosis where one organism benefits and the other is not affected negatively nor positively. This was used again on our ecosystem posters where we looked into how different organisms interact
Parasitism: The kind of symbiosis where one species is a parasite, living in or on the other organism, harming the host. Some examples of this would be ticks, fleas, and leaches being hosted by things like humans, horses and dogs.
Predation: Predation occurs when on species preys on another, this creates a cycle of increased predators diminishing prey and then the lack of prey diminishing the preadator's population. For example lions and cheetahs preying on things like zebras and wildebeests.
Biodiversity: The variety of life in the biosphere and how they interact. It is built up of genes, species, communities of creatures, ecosystems, and biomes.
Limit Factors: Limit factors for a population include both abiotic and biotic factors. Some biotic factors include things like predation, competition, parasitism, and water & food. Some abiotic factors include natural disasters and human impact.
Energy Flow: Energy is transferred through the trophic levels and only 10% of the energy is passed on in each level. The trophic levels include the producers, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level consumers, and the apex predators.
Reflection
I really enjoyed this project because it allowed me to learn about all the members in an ecosystem and how they interact, which I thought was much more interesting than just looking at one animal and why they're dying like in the extinction project. My main contribution in this project was conducting the research with my team and finding our solution to the problem. As well as, working on the slide presentation and seeing how my groups' arctic ecosystem connects to things like the nitrogen, carbon, and water cycle that we learned about in class.
While I felt I did a lot well in this project, where were definitely some things that I could have done better in the project. One thing I could improve upon is being involved in the entire group because there were times it felt like half the group was doing their own thing and the other half was doing something completely different. Another thing I could have done better is communicating with my group-mates because there were time when it seemed like there were two separate groups and the lack of communication made it harder for us to excel in the project.
While I felt I did a lot well in this project, where were definitely some things that I could have done better in the project. One thing I could improve upon is being involved in the entire group because there were times it felt like half the group was doing their own thing and the other half was doing something completely different. Another thing I could have done better is communicating with my group-mates because there were time when it seemed like there were two separate groups and the lack of communication made it harder for us to excel in the project.