Ecological succession is driven by disturbance, both natural and human-induced, and change occurs at multiple scales, both temporal and spatial. Understanding the mechanisms involved in succession requires the integration of many ideas, some of which may contradict students’ belief that succession is only a unidirectional and linear model. The notion of ecosystems as static, or as eventuall...

Publisher: EcoEd Digital Library

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Urban ecology is quickly becoming a major subdiscipline in ecology and being included in the syllabi of most college-level ecology courses. This field and laboratory exercise is designed to be easily modified for use in any area that has a gradient of human density, from urban to rural. In addition, the exercise is designed to 1) cover major organizational levels in ecology, from organisms to...

Publisher: EcoEd Digital Library

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Students use data to test hypotheses on breeding bird species richness. Students will exercise critical thinking skills to interpret data sets and maps. They will then create graphic presentations of their findings. This activity is included in Volume 8 of Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE).

Publisher: EcoEd Digital Library

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In a general sense, biodiversity is an intuitively simple concept, referring to the variety of Earth’s organisms. Ecologists, however, conceptualize biodiversity in a more nuanced, multidimensional way to reflect the enormous diversity of species, niches, and interspecific interactions that generate spatiotemporal complexity in communities. Students may not fully comprehend o...

Publisher: EcoEd Digital Library

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Using claymation, this video illustrates the process by which plant cells make cellulose microfibrils. Important for the structure and support of the plant, human culture has been forever changed by the development of paper made from these strands of cellulose.

Publisher: EconBotEd Digital Library

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