Ecosystem Stability

Which ecosystem has the most biodiversity?

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Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

NGSS.MS-LS2-2

NGSS.MS-LS2-5

A group of people in your town decide they will each use a portion of their yard to plant a variety of native plants. Fifty families replace a part of their yard with native plants.  

Which of these is most likely to happen?

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  The population of the town will decrease.

• 
  The biodiversity of the town will increase.

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  Native animals will move away.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

NGSS.MS-LS2-2

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

NGSS.MS-LS2-5

After Europeans settled in Pennsylvania, its landscape changed. Which type of landscape is new to Pennsylvania?

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  old growth forest

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  farms

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  rivers

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-4

Most of Pennsylvania's forests were cut for logging. However, much of Pennsylvania has forests again.  

What process caused the forests to recover?

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  secondary succession

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  primary succession

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  keystone species

A forest fire killed all of the plants on a mountainside.

Which word best describes the fire?

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  disturbance

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  pioneer species

• climax community

Which of these disturbances will lead to primary succession?

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• 
• 

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-3

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

A forest fire killed all of the plants on a Pennsylvania mountainside. Place the events that will occur now in the correct order. 

Correctly order the steps in ecological succession.

• 
  

  Pioneer species begin to grow.

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  A forest climax community forms.

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  Bushes begin to grow.

• 
  

  Grasses and wildflowers grow.

• 
  

  Young trees begin to grow.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-3

The island country of New Zealand has no native mammals. Its ecosystem is based on birds. Humans brought cats to the island. Cats hunted the kiwi, a flightless bird, almost to extinction.

Which word best describes cats in this scenario?

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  invasive species

• 
  keystone species

• 
  native species

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

Beavers are a keystone species in North America. The dams beavers build create ponds where many other organisms live.  

What will most likely happen to an ecosystem if humans remove the beavers?

• 
  The ecosystem will change.

• 
  The biodiversity of the ecosystem will increase.

• 
  The ecosystem will become stable.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

NGSS.MS-LS2-2

NGSS.MS-LS2-4