Modeling Ecosystem Effects of Termite Mound Patterns

Topic

Resource Type

Level

High School — General High School — AP/IB College

Saved By

4 Users

Description

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study on how termite mounds can enhance an ecosystem’s resilience to drought.

Termites help plants grow by enriching the soil with nutrients and digging tunnels that improve water flow to roots. As a result, ecosystems with termite mounds may be more resistant to losing vegetation, especially during droughts. In this study, scientists mathematically modeled ecosystems with and without termite mounds. The figure shows the varying amounts of vegetation with increasing or decreasing rainfall, along with sudden changes in vegetation that occur at particular thresholds of rainfall.

The “Educator Materials” document includes a captioned figure, background information, graph interpretation, and discussion questions. The “Student Handout” includes a captioned figure and background information.

Student Learning Targets

Analyze and interpret data from a scientific figure.
Describe how certain species can increase the resilience (robustness) of an ecosystem.
Explain how an ecosystem could have different states under the same condition, depending on the direction of past changes (hysteresis).

Estimated Time

Within one 50-minute class period.

Key Terms

alternative stable state, biomass, desertification, ecological resilience, grassland, hysteresis, logarithmic scale, phase diagram, savanna, scatter plot

Primary Literature

Bonachela, Juan A., Robert M. Pringle, Efrat Sheffer, Tyler C. Coverdale, Jennifer A. Guyton, Kelly K. Caylor, Simon A. Levin, and Corina E. Tarnita. “Termite mounds can increase the robustness of dryland ecosystems to climatic change.” Science 347, 6222 (2015): 651–655. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1261487.

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