Ecology Unit Poster Project Directions

Ecology Unit Poster Project
This project will serve as a summative assessment of your learning as a result of this
Ecology unit. Specifically, it will evaluate your ability to transfer your newly acquired
knowledge to a new situation, and hopefully you will even have some fun creating your
poster! You will be randomly assigned an ecosystem type and use all your knowledge
from this unit to identify and describe your ecosystems characteristics, members, and
cycles in accurate detail. Your final product will be going up on our classroom walls so be
sure to create a colorful, detailed, and informative poster.

Creating Your Poster

Note: This poster may be organized however you like, as long as all the information is included
and you have put in effort to decorate it with pictures and color.

1. Ecosystem Information: You have been randomly assigned one of the following 9
terrestrial ecosystem types: Tundra, Boreal Forest, Temperate Forest, Temperate
Woodland and Shrubland, Temperate Grassland, Desert, Tropical Savanna, Tropical
Seasonal Forest, or Tropical Rain Forest. The first step in creating your poster is to
research your ecosystem.
The information you need to include on your poster is:
Where this ecosystem is found in the world (geographic locations)
The type of climate it experiences
At least 6 species of animals and at least 4 species of plants that inhabit the
ecosystem; hand-drawn pictures or photos from the Internet must be included

2. Biotic and Abiotic Factors: Based on what you learned about your ecosystem, you
must now identify the biotic and abiotic factors in that ecosystem.
Identify at least 8 biotic factors, each with a brief description of how they affect
or contribute to the ecosystem
Identify at least 4 abiotic factors, each with a brief description of how they affect
or contribute to the ecosystem

3. Succession: You will use your knowledge of your ecosystem to answer some
hypothetical questions regarding how your ecosystem would experience succession.
Since this is not a section for definite answers, try and be creative yet still reasonably
accurate with your answers.
Identify 1 type event, that is possible to occur in your ecosystem, and would
cause primary succession; be clear about how and why it would cause primary
succession
Identify 1 type event, that is possible to occur in your ecosystem, and would
cause secondary succession; be clear about how and why it would cause
secondary succession
4. Population Size Factors: Choose a species (plant or animal) that inhabits your
ecosystem for which to discuss population factors on your poster.
Identify and describe at least 2 types of density-dependent factors (must be
plausible, likely to truly occur) that would affect this species population size;
density-dependent factors are usually biotic so be sure to include what other
types of animals or plants are involved in your description
Identify and describe at least 2 types of density-independent factors (must be
plausible, likely to truly occur) that would affect this species population size

5. Biogeochemical Cycles: Since you know that nutrients essential for life are constantly
being cycled between living and nonliving aspects of your ecosystem, you will now
describe the process of those cycles. You will describe 2 cycles: the first must be the
water cycle and the second is your choice of either carbon or nitrogen.
Describe how the water cycle would occur in your specific ecosystem; use the
biotic and abiotic factors that are found in your ecosystem to describe the path
that water would take through the cycle and how long that cycle might take
(Hint: think about the ecosystems climate)
Depending on what you choose, describe how carbon/nitrogen cycle would
occur in your specific ecosystem; since these cycles involve both living and
nonliving members of an ecosystem, be sure to describe a hypothetical path that
carbon/nitrogen would take through your ecosystems specific biotic and abiotic
factors

Your poster will be graded using the Ecology Unit Poster Project Rubric. Be
sure to download the rubric from the unit website under Assessments so
you can know what is expected of your final product.

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