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Journal Entry:

How are relationships between populations characterized with in a community?

Learning Intentions

• We will learn what a community is and factors that affect one.

• We will learn how to measure species diversity using Simpson's Diversity Index

• We will learn about symbiotic relationships between organisms with a variety of types of interactions.

• We will learn about trophic cascades and their affect on communities.  

• We will learn about abiotic and biotic factors that affect organisms in an ecosystem.

• We will learn about keystone species and their role in communities.

Closing Task:

You can apply concepts about communities and the interactions between organisms in the communities to your animal research project.

You can make Simpson's Diversity Index calculations.

Content Standards being covered:

Topics:
ENE-4.A Describe the structure of a community according to its species composition and diversity. 
ENE-4.B Explain how interactions within and among populations influence community structure.
ENE-4.C Explain how community structure is related to energy availability in the environment.
SYI-3.F Describe the relationship between ecosystem diversity and its resilience to changes in the environment.
SYI-3.G Explain how the addition or removal of any component of an ecosystem will affect is overall short-term and long-term structure.

Science Practices:
5.B Use confidence intervals and/or error bars (both determined using standard errors) to determine whether sample means are statistically different.  
6.E.c  Predict the causes or effects of a change in, or disruption to, one or more components in a biological system based on data.

Habits of Mind/Life skills being covered:

Applying past knowledge to current situations