Marshland Crabs | What's Wild

We're exploring one of South Carolina's most productive and serene environments, the saltwater marsh. This rich and diverse ecosystem, brimming with marine species, has a dynamic rhythm that beats to the ebb and flow of the tides. We'll also be sailing the seas and taking a look at wildlife management's role in keeping tabs on the local crustacean population.

Standards

• 3.L.5 The student will demonstrate an understanding of how the characteristics and changes in environments and habitats affect the diversity of organisms.
  • 3.L.5A The characteristics of an environment (including physical characteristics, temperature, availability of resources, or the kinds and numbers of organisms present) influence the diversity of organisms that live there. Organisms can survive only in...
    • 3.L.5A.1 Analyze and interpret data about the characteristics of environments (including salt and fresh water, deserts, grasslands, forests, rain forests, and polar lands) to describe how the environment supports a variety of organisms.
• Life Science: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
  • 5.L.4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of relationships among biotic and abiotic factors within terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
    • 5.L.4A Ecosystems are complex, interactive systems that include both the living components (biotic factors) and physical components (abiotic factors) of the environment. Ecosystems can be classified as either terrestrial (such as forests, wetlands, and...
      • 5.L.4A.2 Obtain and communicate information to describe and compare the biotic factors (including individual organisms, populations, and communities) of different terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
    • 5.L.4B All organisms need energy to live and grow. Energy is obtained from food. The role an organism serves in an ecosystem can be described by the way in which it gets its energy. Energy is transferred within an ecosystem as organisms produce, consum...
      • 5.L.4B.3 Construct explanations for how organisms interact with each other in an ecosystem (including predators and prey, and parasites and hosts).
      • 5.L.4B.4 Construct scientific arguments to explain how limiting factors (including food, water, space, and shelter) or a newly introduced organism can affect an ecosystem.
• 7.EC.5 The student will demonstrate an understanding of how organisms interact with and respond to the biotic and abiotic components of their environments.
  • 7.EC.5B Organisms in all ecosystems interact with and depend up on each other. Organisms with similar needs compete for limited resources. Food webs and energy pyramids are models that demonstrate how energy is transferred within an ecosystem.
    • 7.EC.5B.1 Develop and use models to explain how organisms interact in a competitive or mutually beneficial relationship for food, shelter, or space (including competition, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, and predator-prey relationships).
• H.B.6 The student will demonstrate an understanding that ecosystems are complex, interactive systems that include both biological communities and physical components of the environment.
  • H.B.6A Ecosystems have carrying capacities, which are limits to the numbers of organisms and populations they can support. Limiting factors include the availability of biotic and abiotic resources and challenges such as predation, competition, and dise...
    • H.B.6A.1 Analyze and interpret data that depict changes in the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem over time or space (such as percent change, average change, correlation and proportionality) and propose hypotheses about possible relationship...
  • H.B.6C A complex set of interactions within an ecosystem can keep its numbers and types of organisms relatively stable over long periods of time. Fluctuations in conditions can challenge the functioning of ecosystems in terms of resource and habitat av...
    • H.B.6C.1 Construct scientific arguments to support claims that the changes in the biotic and abiotic components of various ecosystems over time affect the ability of an ecosystem to maintain homeostasis.
  • H.B.6D Sustaining biodiversity maintains ecosystem functioning and productivity which are essential to supporting and enhancing life on Earth. Humans depend on the living world for the resources and other benefits provided by biodiversity. Human activi...
    • H.B.6D.1 Design solutions to reduce the impact of human activity on the biodiversity of an ecosystem.
• 3-LS4-2.LS4.B Natural Selection
• 7-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
• 7-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.