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New YorkBiology

Module 6: Ecology and human impact

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

How do organisms interact in a community, and how do ecosystems change over time?

Describe the relationships between organisms (competition, predation, and symbiosis) and explain how ecological succession changes a community over time toward a stable state (NYSSLS LS2, stability and change; cause and effect).
A NYSSLS-level answer on ecological interactions for the New York Life Science: Biology Regents: competition, predation and symbiosis (mutualism, commensalism, parasitism), and how succession changes a community toward a stable climax community.
11 min answer →

How is an ecosystem organized, and how do its living and non-living parts interact?

Describe the levels of ecological organization (organism, population, community, ecosystem) and the roles of biotic and abiotic factors and the producers, consumers and decomposers within an ecosystem (NYSSLS LS2, systems and system models; structure and function).
A NYSSLS-level answer on ecosystem structure for the New York Life Science: Biology Regents: the levels of ecological organization, biotic and abiotic factors, and the roles of producers, consumers and decomposers.
10 min answer →

How does energy flow through a food web, and how is matter cycled in an ecosystem?

Explain how energy flows one way through food chains and webs and is lost at each trophic level, and how matter (carbon and nitrogen) cycles through an ecosystem (NYSSLS LS2, energy and matter; using mathematics).
A NYSSLS-level answer on energy flow for the New York Life Science: Biology Regents: food chains and webs, trophic levels and the energy pyramid, why energy is lost at each level, and how carbon and nitrogen cycle through an ecosystem.
11 min answer →

How does human activity affect ecosystems, and how can these impacts be reduced?

Explain how human activities (pollution, habitat destruction, resource use and the enhanced greenhouse effect) disrupt ecosystems and reduce biodiversity, and evaluate ways to reduce these impacts (NYSSLS LS2 and LS4, cause and effect; stability and change).
A NYSSLS-level answer on human impact for the New York Life Science: Biology Regents: how pollution, habitat destruction, resource use and the enhanced greenhouse effect disrupt ecosystems and reduce biodiversity, and how these impacts can be reduced.
11 min answer →

What controls the size of a population, and what is meant by carrying capacity?

Explain how populations grow and how limiting factors and carrying capacity control population size, interpreting population-growth graphs (NYSSLS LS2, stability and change; analyzing data).
A NYSSLS-level answer on population dynamics for the New York Life Science: Biology Regents: how populations grow, the limiting factors that control them, carrying capacity, and how to interpret population-growth graphs.
11 min answer →