By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe the basic types of ecosystems on EarthDifferentiate between food chains and food webs and recognize the importance of each

Environmental Biology, by Matthew R. Fisher, Editor, and supplemental resources specific to the Pacific Northwest. See https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/envirobiology/

Course Description
Covers environmental topics that are primarily biological in nature. Includes human population issues, matter and energy resources, ecosystems, environmental ethics, and food and land resources. The associated laboratories will illustrate these topics and may include fieldwork.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:
Express graphically, orally or in writing, basic elements and functions of ecosystems.
Identify and express interactions of humans and the environment.
Utilize field and laboratory methods and technologies to measure and describe ecosystems.
Demonstrate an understanding of ecosystem functioning and human effects upon ecosystems.

In this curriculum module, students in high school life science, marine science, and/or chemistry courses act as interdisciplinary scientists and delegates to investigate how the changing carbon cycle will affect the oceans along with their integral populations.

The oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and play a critical role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide through the interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes. As a result of anthropogenic activity, a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration (to 760 ppm) is expected to occur by the end of this century. A quarter of the total CO2 emitted has already been absorbed by the surface oceans, changing the marine carbonate system, resulting in a decrease in pH, a change in carbonate-ion concentrations, and a change in the speciation of macro and micronutrients. The shift in the carbonate system is already drastically affecting biological processes in the oceans and is predicted to have major consequences on carbon export to the deep ocean with reverberating effects on atmospheric CO2. Put in simple terms, ocean acidification is a complex phenomenon with complex consequences. Understanding complexity and the impact of ocean acidification requires systems thinking – both in research and in education. Scientific advancement will help us better understand the problem and devise more effective solutions, but executing these solutions will require widespread public participation to mitigate this global problem.

Through these lessons, students closely model what is occurring in laboratories worldwide and at Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) through Monica Orellana’s research to analyze the effect CO2 has on ocean chemistry, ecosystems and human societies. Students experiment, analyze public data, and prepare for a mock summit to address concerns. Student groups represent key “interest groups” and design two experiments to observe the effects of CO2 on seawater pH, diatom growth, algal blooms, nutrient availability, and/or shell dissolution.