1. Aim # 75: How do natural processes maintain ecosystems?
Date: May 11th, 2017
Aim # 75: How do natural processes maintain ecosystems?
HW:
Daily Review of class notes
Evolution Test Corrections due Friday
RRB pages 5-8 due Friday
Castle Learning (QUIZ #2) due MONDAY
Do Now: Think about it…
List three things that humans do and how it impacts our environment.

2. Aim #75: How do natural process maintain ecosystems?

3. How Much Should It Cost?
You may have read that when something becomes hard to obtain, its price usually increases. Such is the case for materials like gold and diamonds, which are nonrenewable resources. Using similar thinking, some researchers believe that all the valuable services provided by a healthy ecosystem should be assigned a dollar value.

4. Rank the following items in order of their importance to you
Rank the following items in order of their importance to you. Then, next to each item, write down how much you would be willing to pay for it.
1. Fresh, clean drinking water
2. Clean air to breathe
3. An endangered plant containing a substance that can cure cancer
4. Gas for your family car

5. ALL the Natural Processes That maintain the ecosystem
Mother Nature
ALL the Natural Processes
That maintain the ecosystem

6. Ecosystem Services 1. Solar energy 2. Production of oxygen
3. Storage and recycling of nutrients
4. Regulation of climate
5. Purification of water and air
6. Storage and distribution of fresh water
7. Food production
8. Nursery habits for wildlife
9. Detoxification of human and industrial waste
10. Natural pest and disease
control
11. Management of soil erosion
and runoff

7. 1) How do Autotrophs clean the air?
Plants & algae:
Photosynthesis uses_______, releases ______
CO2 O2

8. How does rain clean the air?
Rain cleans the air of particles & soluble gases as it falls through the atmosphere.
How can this be a problem?

9. 2) How is soil formed?
Lichens (fungus and mosses) & weather break down rock into its minerals
Dead Organic materials are added to the minerals

10. 3) How is soil preserved?
The plant roots hold on to the soil & prevent erosion (washing away of valuable material).
How could erosion cause a problem for an ecosystem?

11. 4) How are nutrients recycled?
What does the term recycled mean?
Nutrients are recycled from dead organisms back to the soil by ____________
decomposers

12. Cleaning the environment
How would the environment be affected if ALL decomposers were eliminated?
Nutrient cycling would cease, organic matter would accumulate, and ecosystems would become UN-stable.

13. Summary
Why is the formation of soil an essential step in the formation of a stable ecosystem?
According to today’s lesson, why are plants so important to an ecosystem?
How can humans impact the series of natural processes occurring in ecosystems?