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9.d – Analyze the flow of matter and energy through different trophic levels
and between organisms and the physical environment
11.b – Investigate and identify how organisms respond to external stimulation
11.c – Analyze the importance of nutrition, environmental conditions and
physical exercise on health
11.d – Summarize the role of microorganisms in maintaining and disrupting
equilibrium including diseases in plants and animals and decay in an ecosystem
12.b – Interpret interactions among organisms exhibiting predation, parasitism,
commensalism, and mutualism
12.e – Investigate and explain interactions in an ecosystem including food
chains, food webs, and food pyramids
Previous Lesson
10,000 BC
Today
Question: When did domestication
begin and what was the first animal
domesticated?
Dates (BC) and Places of First
Evidence for Domestication
from Diamond, J., Guns, Germs and Steel, Random House, 1997
•10,000 years of
domestication may
explain why dogs
are man’s best
friend
This is because
productive energy is
diminished with each
trophic level
Pesticides and
Organic Farming
Overview of Lesson
•Pests, DDT and biomagnification
•DDT, eagles and falcons
•Endangered Species Act
•Organic farming
Domestic crops were
selected for maximum
productivity and had little
natural pest resistance
Potato famine of Ireland was caused by
genetically uniform crops and lack of
pesticides to protect them
Blight hits
potatoes, 1845
This problem is
due, in part, to not
selecting for pest
resistance during
domestication
The concentration of
pesticides in higher levels of
food chains
Trophic Levels
Energy Lost by
Egestion of Feces
Energy Ingested
DDT in Food Chain
DDT is concentrated as
it moved up food chain
Nests contained
broken, rotten eggs
The number of
young produced per
breeding
pair was reduced
Population of adult
eagles declined to 4,000
and the eagle was listed
as “Endangered”
•Nests on cliffs
•Keen eyesight
(if human, could read
newspaper print at 110 yards)
•Infertility
•Cancer related deaths increasing
•Childhood cancers
•Mental retardation