This lesson plan is designed to teach students about the importance of the benthic community in the shallow portions of the Arctic and how climate change may affect their respiration. One of the dominant benthic animals in the Arctic, the bivalve Macoma sp., is an important food source for higher trophic level organisms such as walrus and Spectacled Eiders
This lesson plan is designed to teach students about benthic biodiversity in the Arctic by analyzing data from the Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO). Although you can’t see them from the surface, the organisms found on the ocean floor are important indicators of ecosystem health and provide information about productivity. Students will explore sites throughout the Bering and Chukchi Seas
Students will collect soil samples and analyze them with some of the same procedures used by researchers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Soil microfauna (e.g. nematodes) will be extracted from the samples using a Baermann funnel. Students will compare their own data to published data from researchers working in Antarctica.
Data collected from experimental manipulations of ecological processes can help us understand the natural world, and perhaps even help scientists predict how complex systems may change. At CiPEHR, (Carbon in Permafrost Heating Experimental Research) located near Denali National Park, scientists have collected and analyzed seven years of data to learn how increases in soil temperatures influence the carbon
Biodiversity is a central concept in understanding ecosystem functioning. Students explore how biodiversity is measured, impacted and can shift due to environmental changes to develop their understanding. Based off of the Microbial biogeography studies that Dr. Byron Crump is doing in the Arctic and around the world.
Objectives
* Understand the role and importance of biodiversity in
Antarctica is the coldest, driest place on Earth with a fairly limited number of native species which have adapted to these extreme conditions over millions of years. As a result, it's not very likely that a non-native species would survive there . . . right? Actually ever since exploration and exploitation of the Antarctic region began in the 1800's
Case studies provide a brief overview or examination of events that impact or alter the way people function and live day to day within the human and physical environment. They help by providing students with “real world” examples that relate to the theoretical content they are studying.
Objective
Students will prepare a case study illustrating the impact