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.
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What this topic is asking
The NGSSS benchmarks SC.912.L.17.8 and SC.912.L.17.20 ask you to recognize the consequences of biodiversity loss and to predict the impact of human activities on ecosystems, plus the need for sustainability. For the Florida Biology 1 EOC you need to know why biodiversity matters, the main causes of its loss (including invasive species, a Florida-relevant issue), how human activities harm ecosystems, and what sustainability means. Items often use a scenario (an invasive species, pollution, deforestation) and ask for the impact or the sustainable choice.
Why biodiversity matters
Causes of biodiversity loss
The main causes the EOC expects:
- Habitat destruction (clearing forests, draining wetlands, urban development), the largest cause.
- Pollution of air, water, and soil.
- Climate change shifting the conditions species are adapted to.
- Overharvesting (overfishing, overhunting).
- Invasive species (see below).
Human impact on ecosystems
Human activities can damage ecosystems in many ways: deforestation removes habitat and reduces the carbon dioxide that plants absorb; burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide and contributes to climate change; pollution harms organisms and water quality; and overfishing can collapse populations. The benchmark asks you to predict these impacts, so connect an activity to its effect on the ecosystem (for example, clearing a forest reduces habitat, lowers biodiversity, and releases stored carbon).
Sustainability
On the EOC, the sustainable choice is the one that protects ecosystems and uses resources at a renewable rate, not the one that maximizes short-term profit at the environment's expense.
Try this
Q1. Explain why high biodiversity tends to make an ecosystem more stable. [2]
- Cue. With more species, if one declines, others can fill its role, so the ecosystem can better recover from disturbance and resist collapse.
Q2. Explain how an invasive species can reduce biodiversity. [2]
- Cue. A nonnative species with no natural predators can multiply and outcompete or prey on native species, reducing their populations and lowering biodiversity.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of FLDOE exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
FL Biology 1 EOC (2023 released style)1 marksA nonnative python is introduced to the Florida Everglades, where it has no natural predators and eats many native animals. What is the most likely impact? (A) Biodiversity increases. (B) Native populations decline and biodiversity decreases. (C) The ecosystem is unaffected. (D) The python population stays very small.Show worked answer →
A 1-point multiple-choice item on invasive species (a Florida-relevant example).
The correct answer is B. An invasive species with no natural predators can multiply and prey heavily on native species, reducing their populations and lowering biodiversity. This is a well-documented impact of the Burmese python in the Everglades. A and C contradict this, and D is wrong because unchecked invasive populations often grow large.
Invasive species often reduce biodiversity by outcompeting or preying on natives that lack defenses against them.
FL Biology 1 EOC (2024 released style)1 marksWhich human activity would most help promote the sustainability of an ecosystem? (A) Clearing large areas of forest for short-term profit. (B) Protecting habitats and using resources at a rate that allows them to renew. (C) Releasing untreated pollution into rivers. (D) Introducing nonnative species widely.Show worked answer →
A 1-point item on sustainability (SC.912.L.17.20).
The correct answer is B. Sustainability means using resources in a way that meets present needs without depleting them for the future, which includes protecting habitats and not using renewable resources faster than they regenerate. A, C, and D all damage ecosystems and reduce sustainability.
Related dot points
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Describe the conditions required for natural selection, including overproduction of offspring, inherited variation, and the struggle to survive, that result in differential reproductive success (NGSSS SC.912.L.15.13; Reporting Category 2, Classification, Heredity, and Evolution).
A benchmark-level answer on natural selection for the Florida Biology 1 EOC: overproduction, inherited variation, the struggle to survive, differential reproductive success, adaptation, and worked examples like antibiotic resistance.
Sources & how we know this
- Next Generation Sunshine State Standards: Science (Biology 1) — Florida Department of Education (2024)
- Biology 1 End-of-Course Assessment Test Item Specifications — Florida Department of Education (2024)