Key Learning(s):
Niche organisms play an important role in their ecosystem and can be supplanted by non-native species. Conditions challenge
organisms and dictate population diversity in habitats. Resources are distributed unevenly throughout the Earth and its oceans.
Marine policy has evolved over time in reaction to economic and environmental stimuli. Humanity and natural processes have effects
on ecosystems such as coral reefs around the world. Students have opportunities to be stewards of the oceans.
Unit Essential Question(s):
What is ecology?
How does the flow of energy through the food web affect an ecosystem?
What factors affect the productivity of an ecosystem?
Why do human activities have wide-ranging potential effects on coastal ecosystems?
How would you classify the broad range of marine resources?
Who owns marine resources?
What does biodiversity mean to you?
Are the ocean and the atmosphere linked together?
What are the different classifications of pollutants and their effects?
What is the “Tragedy of the Commons” and how has it applied to the oceans?
How do we construct marine policy for effective stewardship of the oceans?
Concept:
Ecology and Ecosystems / Concept:
Ecosystems in the
Open Sea / Concept:
Coastal Ecosystems – Estuaries, Salt Marshes, Mangrove Swamps, and Sea Grasses / Concept:
Coastal Ecosystems – Intertidal Zones, Beaches, Kelp and Seaweed, Coral Reefs
Lesson Essential Question(s):
What are ecology, ecosystem, community, population, habitat, microhabitat, and niche? (A)
How does the flow of energy through the food web affect an ecosystem? (ET)
Which nutrient cycle is the basis for most of the biomass in all ecosystems? (A)
Which nutrient cycle is thought to be limited in marine ecosystems compared to terrestrial ecosystems? (A)
Why are the most productive marine ecosystems found in cold, temperate regions? (A)
KEY:
(A) – Acquisition Lesson
(ET) – Extended Thinking / Lesson Essential Question(s):
Approximately what percentage of the Earth’s surface does the neuston ecosystem cover? (A)
What 2 factors may account for lower primary productivity in the neuston ecosystem? (A)
What is the world’s largest floating ecosystem? (A)
Why is the neritic zone significant as a marine ecosystem? (A)
Why is upwelling significant to openocean ecosystems? (A) / Lesson Essential Question(s):
Why are coastal ecosystems generally highly productive? (A)
Why do human activities have wide-ranging potential effects on coastal ecosystems? (A)
What is eutrophication? (A)
For about what percentage of commercial fish species do estuary ecosystems serve as nurseries? (A)
What adaptations allow halophytes to survive in salt water? (A)
What 2 characteristics of mangrove trees make them the basis for mangrove ecosystems? (A)
How do seagrass ecosystems differ from other halophyte-based ecosystems? (A) / Lesson Essential Question(s):
What are the greatest challenges to life in the supralittoral and littoral ecosystems? (A)
How do beaches affect other marine ecosystems? (A)
How has human hunting of sea otters disrupted the ecological balance of kelp forest ecosystems? (A)
What marine ecosystem is thought by most scientists to be the most taxonomically diverse? (A)
Why do coral ecosystems require water that is in moderate motion and free of nutrients? (A)
What threats do coral ecosystems face? (A)
Vocabulary:
- Abiotic
- Biotic
- Community
- Ecology
- Ecosystem
- Habitat
- Meiofauna
- Microhabitat
- Niche
- Population
- Neuston
- Primary productivity
- Sargassum
- Upwelling
- Adaptations
- Biosphere
- Estuary
- Eutrophication
- Halophytes
- Humus
- Pneumatophores
- Reverse osmosis
- Seagrasses
- Stomata
- Kelp
- Littoral
- Supralittoral
- Urchin
Model from Learning-Focused Strategies. Thompson, M., Thompson, J. (2008)