Summary

Canada's national parks are treasures that need to be preserved for future generations to enjoy. To maintain the biodiversity of the parks, people must understand what important interactions occur in the ecosystems. The more you know and understand about these interactions, the greater will be your ability to preserve them.

Ecosystems contain many different species of organisms. These organisms are considered to be the same species if they can reproduce and produce viable offspring. A population is a group of one type of species living in an area, and communities are made up of many different populations.

The interactions an organism has with its biotic and abiotic environment make up its niche and determine the organism's distribution and habitat requirements. Scientists organize all of the biotic components into one of three domains: bacteria, archaea, and eukarya. Species within each of these domains can be further classified into a kingdom, then a phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Species scientific names are made up of the genus and species name and are unique to each species. Dichotomous keys help people identify and name unknown species.

Ecosystems can be studied by way of a Field Study.

Assessment

Complete Unit B Summative Part 1 now.