Modeling Ecosystem Effects of Termite Mound Patterns

Resource Type
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.
The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.
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
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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Terms of Use
Please see the Terms of Use for information on how this resource can be used.
Accessibility Level (WCAG compliance)
Version History
NGSS (2013)
HS-LS2-1, HS-LS2-6; SEP2, SEP4, SEP5
AP Biology (2019)
SYI-3.F, SYI-2.C; SP1, SP4
IB Biology (2016)
4.1, C.1
AP Environmental Science (2020)
Topic(s): 2.1
Learning Objectives & Practices: ERT-2.A, SP5
IB Environmental Systems and Societies (2017)
2.5
Common Core (2010)
ELA.RST.9-12.7
Math.S-ID.3, Math.S-IC.1; MP2, MP5
Vision and Change (2009)
CC5; DP2, DP3