Unit 10 - Ecosystems
Virginia Standards of Learning:
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LS.6 The student will investigate and understand the basic physical and chemical processes of photosynthesis and its importance to plant and animal life. Key concepts include
a) energy transfer between sunlight and chlorophyll;
b) transformation of water and carbon dioxide into sugar and
oxygen; and
c) photosynthesis as the foundation of virtually all food webs.
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LS.7 The student will investigate and understand that organisms within an ecosystem are dependent on one another and on nonliving components of the environment. Key concepts include
a) the carbon, water, and nitrogen cycles;
b) interactions resulting in a flow of energy and matter throughout the system;
c) complex relationships within terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems; and
d) energy flow in food webs and energy pyramids.
LS.8 The student will investigate and understand that interactions exist among members of a population. Key concepts include
a) competition, cooperation, social hierarchy, territorial
imperative; and
b) influence of behavior on a population.
LS.9 The student will investigate and understand interactions among populations in a biological community. Key concepts include
a) the relationships among producers, consumers, and
decomposers in food webs;
b) the relationship between predators and prey;
c) competition and cooperation;
d) symbiotic relationships; and
e) niches.
LS.10 The student will investigate and understand how organisms adapt to biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem. Key concepts include
a) differences between ecosystems and biomes;
b) characteristics of land, marine, and freshwater ecosystems;
c) adaptations that enable organisms to survive within a
specific ecosystem.
LS.11 The student will investigate and understand that ecosystems, communities, populations, and organisms are dynamic and change over time (daily, seasonal, and long term). Key concepts include
a) phototropism, hibernation, and dormancy;
b) factors that increase or decrease population size; and
eutrophication, climate changes, and catastrophic
disturbances