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Knowledge and Skills Statement

Organisms and environments. The student describes patterns, cycles, systems, and relationships within environments.

intervals of time during which a sequence of a recurring succession of events or phenomena is completed; a course or series of events or operations that recur regularly and usually lead back to the starting point

a period of dryness, especially when prolonged, that causes extensive damage to crops or prevents their successful growth

the circumstances, objects, or conditions that surround an organism including abiotic (climate and soil) and biotic (living organisms) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival

a rising and overflowing of a body of water such as a creek, river, or lake, especially onto normally dry land

an individual form of life, such as a plant, animal, bacterium, protist, or fungus; a body made up of organs, organelles, or other parts that work together to carry on the various processes of life  

regular sequences that can be found throughout nature

to become destroyed or ruined; cease to exist, die

a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole

to grow vigorously, flourish

Research

Clavero, Miguel, Lluís Brotons, and Sergi Herrando. 2011. “Bird Community Specialization, Bird Conservation and Disturbance: The Role of Wildfires.” Journal of Animal Ecology,  80 no. 1 (September 2010): 128–36. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01748.x.

Summary: This study describes how ecological disturbances, like wildfires, affect biological communities. Positive effects on animal communities have been recorded, but these ecological disturbances affect animals differently depending on the species and environment. A study was completed to see how fires affect different bird communities. The bird communities were categorized by how they had been affected by the fire. These researchers who conducted looked at a wide range of land, ranging from a standing forest to a completely burnt area, and a range of different birds who live there. It has been hypothesized that natural disturbances, such as fires, should favor generalist species. This is because specialist species are more sensitive. However, this has not been proven or disproven. It was discovered that some bird traits were favored in the burnt areas, allowing them to thrive. Fires have also created new habitats for threatened species. The researchers concluded that while fires did affect bird communities differently, it could not be concluded that this was directly tied to whether that community was made up of a generalist or specialist species. A benefit of this study is that the importance of fires will likely increase in the future, and this data can help us anticipate different species' responses.