Human Impact

PictureCoral Reef, The Guardian
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life. Environments around the planet have a variety of biodiversity, often environments near the equator have more diversity than others.  The maintaining of biodiversity is essential to the survival of the ecosystem; a loss in a single species can have drastic effects on all organisms in the ecosystem.  Coral reefs are often one of the biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet.  However, they are and recently have been severely effected by human disturbances.  In this unit we will learn how to sample habitats in order to examine the effects of non-native invasive species in our local habitats.

Unit Standards

  • Human Impact 1:  Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and carrying capacity of populations in ecosystems (LS2-2, LS2-1).
  • Human Impact 2 :  Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity (LS4-6).
  • Human Impact 3:  Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity (LS2-7).

Unit Question:
How can you stop Oregon’s alien species invasion?