# data[].attributes.headline
5. Students should be able to conduct a habitat study; research and investigate the adaption, competition and interdependence of organisms within specific habitats and communities.

# data[].attributes.subject
5. Students should be able to conduct a habitat study; research and investigate the adaption, competition and interdependence of organisms within specific habitats and communities.

# data[].attributes.headline
Online quiz activity based on Ecology concepts 

# data[].attributes.subject
Online quiz activity based on Ecology concepts 

# data[].attributes.headline
Good video to introduce the idea of 'competition'

# data[].attributes.subject
Good video to introduce the idea of 'competition'

# data[].attributes.body
A fun online activity where the students must select the correct organism to complete the food chain.

# data[].attributes.body
NOS 3 - As this chapter is based around conducting investigations
NOS4 - As they will be analysing data to investigate patterns and relationships within habitats.
NOS7 - As they will be organising their findings into an ecology portfolio.
E&S5 - As there are links to the cycling of matter in food chains & webs.
PW1 - As the students will be selecting instruments to measure abiotic factors.
PW2 - As they will be measuring abiotic factors, including temperature.
BW8 - As we will be looking at how energy and matter flow through food chains

# data[].attributes.headline
Ecology Portfolio for Students to Record their Findings

# data[].attributes.subject
Ecology Portfolio for Students to Record their Findings

# data[].attributes.body
I have created this ecology portfolio for the students. The students will use this portfolio to record their findings while carrying out a habitat study of their own or in the school.

# data[].attributes.headline
Some Resources for activities and Formative Assessment

# data[].attributes.subject
Some Resources for activities and Formative Assessment

# data[].attributes.body
It contains a particularly helpful document entitled 'four ecosystems' which could be used as a case study. It includes all the main concepts of the unit, including adaptions, estimating the number of organisms, measuring abiotic factors and the influence of abiotic factors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The PDST is funded by the Teacher Education Section (TES) of the Department of Education (DE) and is managed by Dublin West Education Centre. 14 Joyce Way, Park West Business Park, Nangor Road, Dublin 12 Email: [email protected] User Login | Teacher Login | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Findings indicate that soil stored under refrigerated or air-dried conditions can still retain the needed information for understanding microbial community composition and structure for many ...

Understanding how salt marsh grass stays healthy is of crucial ecological importance, and studying the ways bacteria interact with these plants is key. Thanks to recent advances in genomic ...

Grassland provides many services for humans, animals and nature, such as feed production, carbon storage and recreation. Researchers spent two years investigating permanent grassland, its ...

A special review examines highly-cited papers in statistical ecology. The review, which covers a century of research, details how models and concepts have evolved alongside increasing computational ...

The researchers found that birds were more evolutionarily similar on smaller, more isolated islands than on larger, less remote places. The team had expected to find that forested areas had more ...

Despite its benefits and recognition as a keystone practice of ocean stewardship and conservation, adoption of ecosystem-based management has been slow to take hold. To support this change in ocean ...

New research has looked into the potential effects of increased rainfall in regions being earmarked for expansion of temperate rainforests. Amid global calls for more trees to be planted as part of ...

After a century of functional extinction on the Australian mainland, a Flat oyster reef has been successfully restored along a metropolitan Adelaide ...

Freshwater bacteria with small genomes frequently undergo prolonged periods of adaptive stagnation. Based on genomic analyses of samples from European lakes, researchers uncovered specific ...

A new study shows stony coral tissue loss disease is causing drastic changes in the Caribbean's population of corals, which is sure to disrupt the delicate balance of the ecosystem and threaten ...

The alarming rates of biodiversity loss worldwide have made clear that the classical way of governing biodiversity recovery based on protected areas and programs for the protection of endangered ...

A new study that looked at nearly 40 million flights in 2019 calculated the greenhouse gas emissions from air travel for essentially every country on the planet. At 911 million tons, the total ...

Europe's forests have already been severely affected by climate change. Thousands of hectares of trees have already died due to drought and bark beetles. Scientists have now investigated which ...

Global biodiversity has declined between 2% and 11% during the 20th century due to land-use change alone, according to a large multi-model study. Projections show climate change could become the main ...

In the boreal forest of Western Canada, researchers have considered that both changing climate and increased habitat alteration have enabled deer to push farther ...

Researchers have published a comprehensive study on the invasion of lionfish in the Mediterranean Sea, highlighting a rapid spread and the potential ecological impacts. The research shows the ...

Researchers found that forests with higher trait diversity not only adapt better to climate change but may also thrive. The study unveiled how tree functional trait diversity plays a pivotal role in ...

What can be done when one threatened animal kills another? Scientists studying critically endangered lemurs in Madagascar confronted this difficult reality when they witnessed attacks on lemurs by ...

Anticipating changes to ecosystems is often at best an educated guess, but what if there was a way to better tune into possible changes occurring? Researchers have discovered that the silent growth ...

Animal and plant populations have been extensively studied, which has helped to understand ecosystem processes and evolutionary adaptations. However, this has not been the case with microbial ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
ecology; ecology education; science ecosystem; ecology environment; ecological engineering; general ecology; ecosystem; natural ecosystems; marine ecosystem; social ecology; ecosystems; ecosystem; aquatic ecology; plant ecology; wetland ecology; landscape ecology; forest ecology; forest ecosystem; rainforest ecosystem; rainforest ecosystems; pond ecosystems; endangered ecosystems; coral reef; coral bleaching; coral reef food web; coral reef ecosystem; biodiversity; biodiversity importance; biodiversity conservation; loss of biodiversity; aquatic biodiversity; ecosystems; aquatic ecosystems; aquatic ecology; types of ecosystems; fresh water ecosystems; ecosystem; ocean ecosystem; rainforest ecosystem; forest ecosystem; freshwater ecosystem; pond ecosystem; wetland ecosystem; biogeography; ecotoxicology; evolutionary ecology; fire ecology; industrial ecology; invasive species; landscape ecology; microbial ecology; molecular ecology; plant ecology; population ecology; restoration ecology; wildlife ecology; deforestation; red tide; plankton bloom; endangered ecosystems; ecosystem ocean

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ecology and environment news. Research on biodiversity reduction and ecosystems. Read news articles on coral bleaching, deforestation and wetland ecology.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a fun, but effective way of reinforcing the important ecology concepts for the students.

# data[].attributes.body
This is an interesting artcile from the book 'Cocepts of Ecology'. it gave me an insightful base on which i could build my knowledge on ecology. It informs us about the main ideas of ecology, including ecosystems, populations and ecological communities. Reading this was an effective way of refreshing my knowledge on ecology before beginning it with my class.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This book describes the general concepts of ecology including topics such as: the nature of ecosystems, energy flow in ecosystems, the biogeochemical cycles in ecosystems, the ecology of populations, the organization and dynamics of ecological communities, and ecology and man.

# data[].attributes.body
This was another interesting article that I found from the journal of morphology. It is called

'Functional morphology of the gastric mills of carnivorous, omnivorous, and herbivorous land crabs'. It gave an in-depth and interesting insight into the adaptions of two different species of land crabs and how these adaptions make them well suited to their diet. Reading this was an enjoyable way of reinforcing the importance of animal adaptions and the various diets that animals can have. It went into a lot more depth than necessary for junior cert students, however this was beneficial for me as it gave me some interesting facts that I could share with my class to keep them interested and catch their attention.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Corresponding Author

School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3217, Australia

School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University, Pigdons Road, Geelong, Victoria 3217, Australia Search for more papers by this author

First published:

Abstract

Terrestrial decapods consume a wide variety of plant and animal material. The potential adaptations of carnivorous, omnivorous, and herbivorous terrestrial crustaceans were studied by examining the functional morphology of the gastric mill. Two closely related species from each feeding preference group were examined to identify which features of the mill were due to phylogeny and which were due to adaptation. The morphology of the gastric mill matched the diet well; the gastric mills of the carnivorous species ( Geograpsus grayi and Geograpsus crinipes) possessed a blunt, rounded medial tooth and flattened lateral teeth with a longitudinal grinding groove. These features make them well suited to a carnivorous diet of soft animal tissue as well as hard material, such as arthropod exoskeleton. In contrast, the mill of the herbivorous gecarcinids ( Gecarcoidea natalis and Discoplax hirtipes) consisted of a medial tooth with sharp transverse ridges and lateral teeth with sharp interlocking cusps and ridges and no grinding surface. These features would efficiently shred fibrous plant material. The morphology of the mill of the omnivorous coenobitids ( Coenobita perlatus and Birgus latro) was more generalized toward a mixed diet. However, the mill of B. latro was more adapted to deal with highly nutritious food items, such as nuts and heavily calcified decapods. Its mill possessed lateral teeth with extended ridges, which sat close to the calcified cardiopyloric valve to form a flattened floor. Hard items trapped in the mill would be crushed against this surface by the medial tooth. J. Morphol. 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Functional morphology of the gastric mills of carnivorous, omnivorous, and herbivorous land crabs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Corresponding Author School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3217, Australia School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University, Pigdons Road, Geelong, Victoria 3217, Australia Search for more papers by this author First published: Terrestrial decapods consume a wide variety of plant and animal material.

# data[].attributes.headline
Article 3 - Link to an article based on guiding JC Science towards the NOS.

# data[].attributes.subject
Article 3 - Link to an article based on guiding JC Science towards the NOS.

# data[].attributes.body
This article really assisted my development and planning of this unit. It emphasises the importance of the contemporary incorporation of the Nature of Science into the students learning within all elements of the JC science course. I felt that it particularly connected to my development of this ecology section, as it demonstrated the importance of science and understanding skillful methods of investigating and interpreting various types of data and findings, which is at the heart of this unit. It also provided me with some refreshing ideas on how to incorporate the nature of science into my class activity planning, such as allowing the students to investigate and find, rather than providing them with direct information.