Conceptual Framework for Developing Schoolyard Ecology Questions

Chris Myers, Lead Ecologist, Oxford Ohio SYEFEST. Modified from Peter Feinsinger's Framework. Edited by Alan Berkowitz.

BASES:

• Physical laws apply to organisms, too
• Evolution tends to result in traits that enhance survival and reproduction
• Physical and biological realities impose tradeoffs and constraints on what is possible

I. TAXONOMY AND PHYLOGENY

A. Organisms differ from one another.

B. Similar organisms can be grouped.

C. Patterns of similarities among groups tell us something about how lineages evolve

II. INTERACTION BETWEEN AND INDIVIDUAL AND ITS PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

A. Assessing the environment.

B. Physical and physiological traits that help organisms survive in their environment.

C. Behavioral and life-history traits that help organisms survive in their environment (or find a new one).

1. Avoidance (local), migration

2. Homes, habitat selection

III. INTERACTIONS BETWEEN AN INDIVIDUAL AND OTHER INDIVIDUALS (WITHIN AND AMONG SPECIES)

A. Reproduction

1. Plant mating systems and seed dispersal (often = mutualism)

2. Animal mating systems and dispersal

B. Foraging

C. Competition

D. Mutualism

E. Parasitism and disease

F. Communication

IV. A POPULATION PERSPECTIVE

A. Population estimation, growth, regulation, and carrying capacity.

B. Life history variation, life cycles, and dispersal.

V. COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES: INTEGRATION AND PATTERN AMONG ASSEMBLAGES OF POPULATIONS

A. Species richness, diversity, and dynamics

B. Niche, species packing, and guilds

C. Keystone species

D. Food webs

E. Disturbance and regeneration

VI. ECOSYSTEM AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

A. Ecosystem productivity and biodiversity

B. Flow of materials and energy through an ecosystem

D. Global cycles

VII. VARIATION, CHANGE, CYCLES AND SCALE

A. Variation over time

1. ecological perspectives (succession, diurnal and seasonal changes)

2. evolutionary perspectives (history of life, evolutionary ecology)

3. geologic perspectives (climate change, paleoecology, plate tectonics, animal migrations)

B. Variation over space

1. landcape ecology at micro, meso, regional and global scales

2. biogeography

VIII. HUMANS WITHIN ECOSYSTEMS

A. Stress and disturbance regimes (also resistance and resilience)

B. Conservation and restoration

C. The concepts of biodiversity, sustainability and dependence

D. Knowledge, attitudes, ethics, beliefs and behaviors of different cultures

IX. OBSERVATION, PERCEPTION, IMAGINATION, REVERENCE