TwoOldGuys™ Study Guides
BI-114 BioConcepts for Teachers
5. Ecology, basics
5.2. Species Distribution
based on Indiana's Academic Standards, Science,
as adopted by the Indiana State Board of Education, Nov 2000.
numbers refer to the age-appropriate grade-level for the content.
Review
Species distribution
grades 2: to 4:
- Different animals and plants are found in different regions
- Arctic, Forest, Prairie, African savanna
- woods, grassland, swamp
grades 5: to 6:
- Each species thrives in a particular environment,
- "optimum" environment for the species
- does not survive as well in other environments,
- suboptimum environment
- marginal environment
- and does not survive at all in other environments
grades 7: to 8:
- The ability to survive forms a bell-shaped curve similar to a grading curve
| distribution in environment |
| resource |
survival |
| not enough |
lethal |
| barely enough |
marginal |
| almost enough |
suboptimal |
| just right |
optimal |
| a bit too much |
suboptimal |
| too much |
marginal |
| way too much |
lethal |
grades secondary: to college:
- Each species is distributed relative to needed resources independently
- species normally found together,
have similar distributions
- closely related species may have little overlap
in their distributions
- Theory of Island Biogeography states
- probability of immigration depends on distance
from source of emmigrants
- probability of becoming established depend on
size of 'island'
- time to local extinction depends on size or
complexity of 'island'
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