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FloridaBiology

Reporting Category 3: Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

Why does biodiversity matter, and how do human activities affect ecosystems and sustainability?

Recognize the consequences of the loss of biodiversity, and predict the impact of human activities on ecosystems and the need for sustainability (NGSSS SC.912.L.17.8 and SC.912.L.17.20; Reporting Category 3, Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems).
A benchmark-level answer on biodiversity and human impact for the Florida Biology 1 EOC: why biodiversity matters, causes of biodiversity loss (habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, climate change), human impacts, and sustainability.
12 min answer →

What makes one biome different from another, and what shapes life in aquatic systems?

Compare and contrast the characteristics of major biomes, describe what determines the distribution of life in aquatic systems, and explain ecological succession (NGSSS SC.912.L.17.6, SC.912.L.17.2, and SC.912.L.17.4; Reporting Category 3, Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems).
A benchmark-level answer on biomes and aquatic systems for the Florida Biology 1 EOC: how temperature and rainfall define biomes, the factors shaping aquatic life, the levels of ecological organization, and ecological succession.
12 min answer →

How do carbon, nitrogen, and water cycle through living things and the environment?

Explain how matter cycles through ecosystems, including the carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles, and the roles organisms play in them (NGSSS SC.912.L.17; Reporting Category 3, Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems).
A benchmark-level answer on biogeochemical cycles for the Florida Biology 1 EOC: the carbon cycle (photosynthesis and respiration), the nitrogen cycle and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, the water cycle, and how matter cycles while energy flows.
12 min answer →

How does energy move through an ecosystem, and why is so little left at the top of a food chain?

Use a food web to identify producers, consumers, and decomposers, and explain the transfer of energy through trophic levels and the reduction of available energy at each level (NGSSS SC.912.L.17.9; Reporting Category 3, Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems).
A benchmark-level answer on energy flow for the Florida Biology 1 EOC: producers, consumers, and decomposers, food chains and webs, trophic levels, the energy pyramid, and the ten percent rule.
12 min answer →

What determines how big a population grows, and what is carrying capacity?

Analyze how population size is determined by births, deaths, immigration, and emigration, and how limiting factors (biotic and abiotic) determine the carrying capacity of an environment (NGSSS SC.912.L.17.5; Reporting Category 3, Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems).
A benchmark-level answer on population dynamics for the Florida Biology 1 EOC: how births, deaths, immigration, and emigration change population size, limiting factors, carrying capacity, and exponential versus logistic growth.
13 min answer →