Ecosystems (Rainforest)

Describe how ecosystems work.
Examine the cycling of matter in ecosystems.
Determine the impact of natural selection and ecological succession on biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem.
Explain how human population change affects the environment.
Prepare a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in which you examine the framework of your selected ecosystem and how it functions. In your paper, be sure to address the following items:

o Describe how climate affects your selected ecosystem.

o Based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, explain how energy flows through your selected ecosystem.

o Examine how matter is transported through your selected ecosystem due to biogeochemical cycles (e.g., carbon, hydrologic, nitrogen, phosphorus). Be sure to discuss how human activities have altered these matter/nutrient cycles.

o Describe some of the survival characteristics of the plants and animals in your selected ecosystem. Be sure to discuss how these adaptations developed in response to biotic and abiotic factors, and through the process of natural selection.

o Discuss how ecological succession can change the biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem, and how that might influence species survival adaptations.

o Explain how human population change has affected your selected ecosystem.