Q: Fully describe the stages of succession if your school and surrounding area were to completely burn down. (11D)

A: If a fire were to destroy the school and surrounding community we would go through whats called secondary succession. This is when a disturbance of some kind changes an existing community without removing the soil, then secondary succession can follow. It also occurs when wildfires burn woodlands. For example, wildfires in Yellowstone National Park in 1988 led to secondary succession after the fires. Fires set by lightning occur naturally in many ecosystems. Certain plants have adapted to a regular cycle of fire and regrowth. Their seeds will not sprout unless exposed to fire. First we would basically have a field of ashes and seared trees, but over time small plants would emerge from dispersion of seeds by wind and animals that track though the area. Soon enough you have small trees and patches of grass popping up all over the place!

Q: give examples of how the species have respond?

Answer – the species had to move to another location to survive

Q: how have the carbon the nitrogen cycle in your commuity been impacked? what consequences is it haveing on your commuity?

Answer- more people means more carbon dioxide so this makes more of a need to grow.

Q: Make and use models to show a food chain, food web, and ecological pyramid that exist in your community.(12C)

A: If one of these organisms was to disappear from the food chain/web all of the responding organisms wouldn't have anything to eat, or would have a harder time finding food causing the other organisms to die off. Also the food that the disappearing organism ate population would grow out of control due the absence of a consuming componant.

Q: What are the biotic and abiotic factors that the organisms in your commutiy depend on?

A: biotic factors- the horses depend on grass to eat. Abotic factors- the fence provides protection for horses.

Q:After learning about the peppered moth's adaptations during the industrial age, consider one species in your ecosystem and predict some of its possible adaptations in 50 years. Justify your answer. (12B)

A: I think raccoons in our community could evolve and become completely dependent on our school trash because when we built the school we may have destroyed some raccoons food supply such as small mammals that had to relocate. The future raccoons could possibly be dependent on our trash and with our school being so technologically advanced I know we will find a way to reduce the waste we produce and the raccoons would not know how to hunt for food. So potentially the raccoons could evolve to not know how to hunt for food and rely on us humans feeding them.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42874378/ns/us_news-life/

Q: What relationships exist between organisms in an ecosystem? What is an example of each within your own community?(12A)

A: In an ecosystem the different relationships are Parasitism, which is where one organism benefits and the other suffers. An example of this in our community is fleas and dogs. We have many dogs in our area and they can easily catch fleas so watch out! Commensalism is where one organism benefits and other is neither harmed nor does it benefit. An example of commensalism in our community is a tree and an Ivy plant. Ivy climb trees for support and the tree isn’t harmed and it also doesn’t benefit. Mutualism is where both organisms benefit. An example in our community is horses and grass. The horse eats the grass and produces fertilizer for the grass. Competition is when different species living together in a community compete for limited resources. An example in our community is weeds and grass. They compete with one another for sunlight and nutrients. And last but not least is predatory. This is where one organism hunts and feeds on the other. An example of this in our community is hawks and snakes.

Q: How have the enviornmental changes impacted the stability of your ecosystem?(12F)

A: The enviornmental changes caused by the building of our school in the middle of this mini "Cedar Ridge Ecosystem" has caused some changes for the animals that were here and still live here today.  Animals now may need to find new places of shelter and homes that can protect them from new predators, humans, if needed. The food sources for these animals have changed too, birds now may depend on the scraps of food left in the dumpsters due to the lack of worms found, some animals have to take on a bigger variety of food to survive. Also animals now have to adapt to new organism entering their enviorment, humans, they are alot bigger that most of the other organisms and have alot more power. People now have become the alpha male of the enviornment, and now the other animals have to learn to deal.

Q: What are the roles of microorganisms in your ecosystem?(11C)

Microorganisms play big roles in multiple cycles that are key components in the balance of our environment. In the Nitrogen Cycle (soil depends on the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen) Microorganisms play a big role in biological fixation, the process in which bacteria fixes nitrogens for platnts to use. In the Carbon Cycle microorganisms help to get carbon from non-living things to make carbon avaliable to living organisms.So the next time you see a lucious green tree outside your window, you are watching microorganisms at work in both fixing nitrogen for plants to use and grow and changing carbon into a form usable by living organisms.