Natural Resources, The Environment And Ecosystems Activities for teachers to help students become more aware of how plants, animals and humans interact with ecosystems. http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/ecosystems/
Lesson Plans - Elementary Ecosystems This lesson teaches students the basics of species interdependency within an ecosystem or habitat. Students will perform a simple simulation to see how one http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/08/gk2/ecosystem.html
Extractions: Elementary Ecosystems Alligators and Crocodiles Designing a Native Plants Garden Fish Aren't Afraid of the Dark! Little Red Riding Hood MeetsA Golden Retriever? The Antarctic Food Chain The Incredible Prairie Picture Show Who Am I? Complete Index Elementary Ecosystems Overview: This lesson teaches students the basics of species interdependency within an ecosystem or habitat . Students will perform a simple simulation to see how one species can affect many others, and gain a basic understanding of the importance of biodiversity . For older students, you may want to define and use the word "ecosystem" in the lesson. Connections to the Curriculum: Geography, biology, current events, zoology Connections to the National Geography Standards: Standard 8: "The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth's surface" Time: Two to three hours Materials Required: Objectives: Students will describe the things animals need to survive and the ways in which animals depend on other animals and plants;
Extractions: Skip over navigation Home About GEO ... GEOSS SBA : Ecosystems Ecosystems Terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems provide essential socio-economic and environmental benefits. Ecosystems the world over, however, are under tremendous stress from rapid land-use change, pollution and the overexploitation of natural resources. Unfortunately, current Earth observation systems for monitoring forests, wetlands, deserts and other ecosystems suffer from numerous gaps and weaknesses. As a result, these systems cannot adequately support efforts to revive, protect or manage ecosystems. The Group on Earth Observations aims to strengthen ecosystem monitoring through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. GEOSS will establish an expanded and coordinated network of land, ocean and coastal monitoring systems that will produce information of the required breadth and depth. In particular, GEOSS will improve spatial information on ecosystem conditions and trends. It will enable researchers to classify ecosystems and delineate their boundaries, including the geographic limits of protected areas. It will generate and integrate a wide variety of ecosystem data and create high-resolution maps so that decision makers can monitor ecosystem services such as flood control and sustainable timber harvests. GEOSS will also improve the monitoring and assessment of desertification and help to coordinate global, regional and national forest monitoring programs. To learn more, view or download the collection of
Extractions: Skip to content. Skip to navigation Sections Personal tools You are here: Home Document Actions Saving endangered species in the Greater Southern Rockies. Blurb. Critterthink Blog Entry by Brian Hires on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Through a Senate 'Dear Colleague' letter to Interior Appropriations Committee leadership last week, Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) called for increased funding of endangered species programs. The President's '09 Budget calls for yet another funding cut to endangered species programs. Conservation of our nation's most imperiled wildlife and habitat has been severely hampered by the administration's ultimate trump card in its war against endangered species - withholding needed funding for endangered species programs. One result of perennial underfunding - a 30 percent shortage in staffing for endangered species programs. Press Release on Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Rec.gardens.ecosystems: Organic Gardening Based On Ecology rec.gardens.ecosystems is a moderated newsgroup. The group is dedicated to discussions of how to cooperate as a gardener with naturally occuring ecosystems http://www.ibiblio.org/rge/
Extractions: rec.gardens.ecosystems is a Usenet newsgroup intended for the discussion of gardening topics from an ecological perspective. In "down to earth" language, this means trying to work in concert with nature, rather than trying to force it into rigid format. A second aspect of the ecological perspective is that one avoids the use of toxic substances and fertilizers. Both toxic substances and fertilizers may seem to have short term beneficial effects on the home garden, but invariably turn out to disrupt the natural processes. The net result is that natures's dynamic balance is forced into a fixed balance, that can only be maintained by the use of more toxic substances and fertilizers. Gardening from an ecological perspective incorprorates organic gardening , and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) , but is not identical to either of them. What they have in common is that both can only be successful if based on a knowledge of how nature works. In accordance with this vision on gardening, rec.gardens.ecosystems is a moderated group. This means that there are a couple of people keeping a close eye on the group, and scanning potential contributions before they pop up in the group. This is mainly a preventive approach, enabeling us to keep the group free of the usual Usenet pests. More details on the group and its moderation policy are described in the charter and section A of the group's list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). The other sections of the FAQ provide a growing body of knowledge on gardening from ecological principles.
Ecosystem Services: A Primer (ActionBioscience) Natural ecosystems perform fundamental lifesupport services upon which human civilization depends. Unless human activities are carefully planned and http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/esa.html
Extractions: education author bio The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization of scientists founded in 1915 t... more on author article highlights Natural ecosystems produce services upon which we are dependent. For example, they: August 2000 Human civilization depends on healthy ecosystems. Ecosystem Services: processes by which the environment produces resources. Ecosystem Services are the processes by which the environment produces resources that we often take for granted such as clean water, timber, and habitat for fisheries, and pollination of native and agricultural plants. Whether we find ourselves in the city or a rural area, the ecosystems in which humans live provide goods and services that are very familiar to us. moderate weather extremes and their impacts disperse seeds mitigate drought and floods cycle and move nutrients protect stream and river channels and coastal shores from erosion detoxify and decompose wastes control agricultural pests maintain biodiversity
Roadmap For Open ICT Ecosystems - Home The Roadmap for Open ICT ecosystems is a userfriendly guide for policymakers and technologists offerings tools for understanding, creating, and sustaining http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/epolicy/
Extractions: Read the Roadmap to learn what open ICT ecosystems are, and why they are increasingly important in an on-demand, information-driven world. Case studies provided by senior government officials from thirteen nations illustrate the application of open standards in diverse environments. Annexes and models provide practical exercises that help you assess the openness of your current ICT ecosystem. Why is Opening ICT Ecosystems Important?
Agriculture, Ecosystems Environment - Elsevier Agriculture, ecosystems Environment An International Journal for Scientific Research on the Interaction Between Agroecosystems and the Environment http://www.elsevier.com/wps/product/cws_home/503298
Extractions: Home Site map Elsevier websites Alerts ... Products Journal information Product description Editorial board Audience Abstracting/indexing ... Special issues and supplements Subscription information Bibliographic and ordering information Combined subscriptions Conditions of sale Dispatch dates Journal-related information Contact the publisher Impact factor Most downloaded articles Other journals in same subject area ... Select your view deals with the interface between agriculture and the environment. It seeks to provide a science forum to discuss how agricultural practices influence the broader environment and how changes outside agriculture affect agricultural systems. Emphasis is placed on innovative and original research that elucidates the link between agroecosystems (association of crops, pastures, livestock) and the environment (including energy, air, water, land). This two-way interface or link cuts both ways as it elucidates the influence of agriculture on the environment but also characterizes how changes in the latter impact agroecosystems. The journal covers topics such as ecology of agricultural systems; response of agroecosystems to environmental stress (climate change, intensification, soil degradation, pollutants, waste materials, air quality, and changing land and water use); agricultural landscape ecology and processes; and characteristics of agroecosystems from a biological, physical, and environmental standpoint. Papers that advance our understanding on how to make agroecosystems more diverse and sustainable are especially welcome.
South Florida Seagrass Ecosystems Home Page In the Seagrass ecosystems Research Laboratory at Florida International University , we are engaged in basic and applied research into the structure and http://www.fiu.edu/~seagrass/
Extractions: There are over 15,000 km of seagrass beds in south Florida. In the Seagrass Ecosystems Research Laboratory at Florida International University , we are engaged in basic and applied research into the structure and function of seagrass beds and the food webs that they support. At this web site you will find information on the biology and ecology of seagrasses, current research projects, and classes taught by the SERL staff. The Seagrass Ecosystems Research Lab is a component of the Southeast Environmental Research Center at FIU. Seagrass Monitoring in South Florida. Click here to see spatial distribution of seagrasses in south Florida, time series data on abundance and productivity of seagrasses, and photos of benthic habitats. Assessment of Nearshore Benthic Communities of the Florida Keys Florida Coastal Everglades LTER. Click here to see the National Science Foundation's FCE LTER website. Seagrass Monitoring in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary-2005 Annual Report.
Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program - Prairie Ecosystem The North American prairie is one of the most endangered ecosystems on earthperhaps even more endangered than the South American rain forest or the old http://www.blackfootedferret.org/prairie.html
Extractions: The North American prairie is one of the most endangered ecosystems on earthperhaps even more endangered than the South American rain forest or the old growth forests of the American northwest. The grasslands of North America began to form about 20 million years ago, but in some areas, up to 99 percent of the prairie has been destroyed in just the last 125-150 years. The area known as the Great Plains was once the greatest grassland on earth and covered over a quarter of the continental U.S. along with portions of southern Canada and northern Mexico. The prairie stretched from the Rocky Mountains eastward for over 800 miles, and extended more than 3000 miles from north to south. The plains were created from sediment washed out of the Rockies over millions of years which mixed with rubble from glaciers, and windblown deposits of silt, sand and clay which now rests on the bed of what was once a shallow inland sea. The Rocky Mountains also intercepted the flow of moist air from the Pacific, and dried out the interior of the continent, which favored grasses over trees. Receding glaciers formed thousands of shallow depressions across the Northern Plains. These wetland areas, known as prairie potholes, range in size from 1/5th of an acre to 25 acres. Cattails and rushes comprise the dominant emergent plants, and floating plants such as water lilies and duckweed are also common. Although the pothole region comprises only 10 percent of North America's waterfowl breeding areas, it produces over half of the continent's duck population. Besides serving as breeding and watering sites for wildlife, potholes collect rain and flood waters, which are released slowly, helping prevent floods and erosion. Today, many areas of prairie potholes have been drained, primarily to create farmland.
Extractions: The consortium for research on Enhancing Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems (CSiTE) is a multi-institutional research effort involving Argonne Oak Ridge , and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories and partnered Universities. Established in 1999 and sponsored by the Climate Change Research Division (CCRD) of the Office of Biological and Environmental Research within the -induced climate change. CSiTE is part of the Climate Mitigation Science Focus Area of CCRD and supports the strategic plan of the US Climate Change Technology Program CSiTE is founded on the premise that identifying and understanding the fundamental physical, chemical, biological, and genetic mechanisms controlling sequestration is crucial to protecting stored carbon and enhancing carbon accrual. CSiTE has from its inception taken a holistic multi-scale approach investigating processes from the molecular to the national scale.
Extractions: Please select Africa Asia Australia / Oceania Europe France Germany Italy North America South America Switzerland United Kingdom All Author/Editor Title ISBN/ISSN Series Journals Series Textbooks Contact Select your subdiscipline Agriculture Aquatic Sciences Behavioral Sciences Biochemistry Bioinformatics Cell Biology Developmental Biology Ecology Entomology Forestry Microbiology Plant Sciences Zoology Select a discipline Astronomy Biomedical Sciences Chemistry Computer Science Economics Education Engineering Environmental Sciences Geography Geosciences Humanities Law Life Sciences Linguistics Materials Mathematics Medicine Philosophy Physics Psychology Public Health Social Sciences Statistics Home Life Sciences Ecology Editors-in-Chief: M.G. Turner; S.R. Carpenter ISSN: 1432-9840 (print version) Springer New York Online version available Online First articles available Description Editorial Board Description The study and management of ecosystems represents the most dynamic field of contemporary ecology. Ecosystem research bridges fundamental ecology, environmental ecology and environmental problem-solving. The scope of ecosystem science extends from bounded systems such as watersheds to spatially complex landscapes, to the Earth itself, and crosses temporal scales from seconds to millennia. Ecosystem science has strong links to other disciplines including landscape ecology, global ecology, biogeochemistry, aquatic ecology, soil science, hydrology, ecological economics and conservation biology. Studies of ecosystems employ diverse approaches, including theory and modeling, long-term investigations, comparative research and large experiments.
Aquatic Eco-Systems Is Moving! Aquatic EcoSystems is moving! If you see this message, we are moving to our new Web site. Check back later and visit our updated and improved site. http://aquaticecosystems.com/
Web World Wonders Florida s natural ecosystems are especially valuable because of the People have been interacting with and modifying Florida s ecosystems for at least http://webworld.freac.fsu.edu/eco/
Extractions: Home Field Sites Teacher Resources Student Activities ... South Florida Rockland People have been interacting with and modifying Florida's ecosystems for at least 10,000 years. Over most of this time their use of natural resources was sustainable. Their activities did not cause any significant decrease in the ability of the environment to maintain clean air and water, as well as productive, biologically diverse ecosystems. However, the massive human uses of Florida's natural environment in the twentieth century are clearly unsustainable. Deforestation in the north, wetland drainage in the south, agriculture in the center, and creeping urbanization everywhere have caused massive losses of natural ecosystem diversity and productivity. Perhaps the major challenge of the next century is to create an environmentally, as well as economically, sustainable way of living. The collective properties managed by public agencies and private groups, such as national forests, state parks, and private refuges, form a fragmented but extremely important Nature Reserve System of Florida. Enlarging and/or connecting these fragments into a more integrated and comprehensive protected area system is a critically important goal of the next decade but will not by itself suffice to maintain the existing biodiversity of Florida. In addition, human activities in the vicinity of reserves should contribute to protection of biodiversity in the reserves, and Floridians everywhere must live in closer harmony with their natural heritage.
WHO | Ecosystems And Human Well-being: Health Synthesis This report synthesizes the findings from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment s (MA) global and subglobal assessments of how ecosystem changes do, http://www.who.int/globalchange/ecosystems/ecosystems05/en/index.html
Extractions: Main content printable version This report synthesizes the findings from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment's (MA) global and sub-global assessments of how ecosystem changes do, or could, affect human health and well-being. All the MA authors and review editors have contributed to this report through their contributions to the underlying assessment chapters on which this text is based. Five additional MA synthesis reports were prepared to facilitate access to information by other audiences: general overview; UNCCD (desertification); CBD (biological diversity); Ramsar Convention (wetlands); and business. Each MA sub-global assessment also will produce additional reports to meet the needs of its own audience. The full technical assessment reports of the four MA working groups were published in mid 2005 by Island Press. Media advisory [pdf 35kb]
Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Public Web Site of the Georgia Coastal ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research Program and links to data sets and information about the estuary and salt marsh http://gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu/lter/
Extractions: Our understanding of aquatic ecosystems, especially the marine environment, is poorer than that of most terrestrial systems. Human activity has had a major detrimental impact on these environments. Several National Zoo scientists are studying species in aquatic ecosystems. The focus of these studies involves research on the ecology (behavioral and nutritional), reproduction, health, and husbandry of marine vertebrate species with a particular emphasis on conservation. This work is part of a broader Smithsonian Marine Science Network that has four main research emphases: ecology, systematics, evolutionary biology, and geology.
MICRO-ECOSYSTEMS The Microecosystem activity/project can be used during an ecology unit and can be adapted to a variety of classes and students. http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1996/doerder_micro.html
Extractions: -Advertisement- The Micro-ecosystem activity/project can be used during an ecology unit and can be adapted to a variety of classes and students.It is best to set up the ecosystems early in the school year and to construct them following a field trip. A pond or wetland can provide good sources of "starter" mud and water. Students design an aquatic or terrestrial micro-ecosystem or model local ecosystems in 10 gallon aquarium tanks. The project may take from one to three weeks depending on the amount of time available for lab and how involved the project becomes. Observations on the micro-ecosystems occur over the school year, and the tanks are left until fall for initial study by a new class. Opening the micro-ecosystems provides materials for labs that may include: doing a biological survey utilizing dichotomous keys, reviewing/studying the five kingdoms, practicing basic microscope techniques, creating microbiological cultures or Winogradski columns. The organisms and materials from the previous year's projects are recycled in the new projects. The micro-ecosystems also include time capsules. The tanks should be near windows but generally do best with lower levels of light (less chance for a green house effect to cook the interior). The outside designs that students paint also help control light levels. It is possible to stack the tanks with boards and cement blocks or on aquarium stands.
RPM EcoSystems Fast Growth; High Survivability; Earlier Fruit, Seed and Nut Production; Greater Root Biomass; ALL NATURAL PROCESS (nonGMO). 2007 RPM ecosystems LLC. http://www.rpmecosystems.com/