Topic outline

  • General

  • Ecosystem Components (LG 1-3)

    BIG IDEA – Diversity of Ecosystems:  

    Complex roles and relationships contribute to diversity of ecosystems.

    Content Learning Standards

    Students are expected to know the following:

    • abiotic characteristics:  
      • aquatic (e.g. pH, flow, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, salinity)
      • atmospheric (e.g. sunlight, wind, temperature, pressure)
      • edaphic - soils (e.g. pH, mineral content, water content, temperature, acidity, aeration, nutrients, humus)
                       - topography (e.g. altitude, slope, exposure, mountain chains, valleys, plains)
    • levels of biotic diversity (e.g. ecosystem, species, genetic)
    • interactions between biotic and abiotic

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  • Ecosystem Behaviour (LG 4-6)

    BIG IDEA – Diversity of Ecosystems:  

    Complex roles and relationships contribute to diversity of ecosystems.

    Content Learning Standards

    Students are expected to know the following:

    ecosystem complexity:

    • roles (e.g. niche, autotrophs, heterotrophs, producers, consumers, decomposers, scavengers, keystone species)
    • energy flow through ecosystems (e.g. food chains, food webs, photosynthesis, respiration, trophic levels, productivity, pyramids of energy and biomass)
    • relationships between organisms (e.g. predator/prey, competition, pollination, symbiosis, mutualism, parasitism, commensalism, mimicry)

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  • Ecosystem Processes (LG 7-9)

    BIG IDEA – Changing Ecosystems:  

    Changing ecosystems are maintained by natural processes.

    Content Learning Standards

    Students are expected to know the following:

    • matter cycles through and between living systems (e.g. water, nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus)
    • population dynamics (e.g. cyclic fluctuations, birth rate, fertility rate, carrying capacity)
    • ecosystem change (e.g. primary and secondary succession, introduced species, invasive species, )
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  • Environmental Degradation (LG 10 - 12)

    BIG IDEA – Sustainability of Ecosystems:

    Human practices affect the sustainability of ecosystems.

    Content Learning Standards

    Students are expected to know the following:

    • human actions and their impact on ecosystem integrity (e.g. harvesting, resource extraction and consumption, population growth, urbanization, habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, pollution, forest fires)

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  • Environmental Sustainability, Stewardship & Restoration (LG 13 - 15)

    BIG IDEA – Sustainability of Ecosystems:

    Human practices affect the sustainability of ecosystems.

    Content Learning Standards

    Students are expected to know the following:

    • First Peoples knowledge and other traditional ecological knowledge in sustaining biodiversity 
      (e.g.agriculture, ethnobotany, forestry, fisheries, mining, energy, controlled burning, harvesting cycles)
    • benefits of ecosystem services 
      (e.g. water purification, pollination, climate regulation, medicines, food production, waste management)
    • First Peoples ways of knowing and doing (prescribed fire, selective harvesting, plant propagation and pruning, clam gardens)
    • resource stewardship, the sustainable use of, and care for, local resources (e.g., school garden, shoreline cleanup, citizen science projects)
    • restoration practices for renewing and recovering a degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystem (e.g. riparian zone recovery, invasive species removal, native species planting, ecological engineering, dam removal, hatcheries, wildlife, forestry and fisheries management)
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  • Ecosystem Analysis (LG 16-18)

    BIG IDEAS 

    • Diversity of Ecosystems:  Complex roles and relationships contribute to diversity of ecosystems.
    • Changing Ecosystems:  Changing ecosystems are maintained by natural processes.
    • Sustainability of Ecosystems: Human practices affect the sustainability of ecosystems.
    • Stewardship and Restoration: Humans can play a role in stewardship and restoration of ecosystems.

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