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One Ecosystem: Many Issues

Do you ever think about global warming and what it means to ecosystems around the world or especially to you? This webquest is designed to help you understand that climate change is recognized as a global trend and concern among scientists and the general public in the past decade. In an ecosystem, there are organisms that depend upon each other. The broad question is how climate change affects the interaction between the members of an ecosystem.

The Sunset Crater research site serves as a model for observing an ecosystem and the effects of local climate change from 1985-2007 through data collected on the relationship between the Pinyon Pine (Pinus edulis) and scale (Matsucoccus acalyptus), an insect which depends upon the pinyon for its life cycle. Students will participate in research on the pinyon pine at Sunset Crater in conjunction with the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research at Northern Arizona University. They are encouraged to establish a group of study trees in their own locale or use the data provided on the webquest.

The activities in this webquest are centered around grades 4 and 5. (Adaptations are provided for middle school and primary grades.)

This webquest supports a variety of Common Core and Arizona Academic Standards ranging from science to writing, for fourth and fifth grades.