Standards with the same topic and subject but for other grades
An ecosystem is made up of the biotic (living) community and the abiotic (nonliving) factors that affect it. The health of an ecosystem is directly related to water quality (6.8 a).
Abiotic factors determine ecosystem type and its distribution of plants and animals as well as the usage of land by people. Abiotic factors include water supply, topography, landforms, geology, soils, sunlight, and air quality/O2 availability.
identify abiotic and biotic features in the students’ local watershed (6.8 a, b)
explain the factors that affect water quality in a watershed and how those factors can affect an ecosystem (6.8 d)
Abiotic factors determine ecosystem type and its distribution of plants and animals, as well as the usage of land by people. Abiotic factors include water supply, topography, landforms, geology, soils, sunlight, and air quality/O2 availability (6.8 a).
Water-quality monitoring is the collection of water samples to analyze chemical and/or biological parameters. Simple parameters include pH, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and the presence of macroinvertebrate organisms (6.8 a).
The student will investigate and understand that land and water have roles in watershed systems. Key ideas include a) a watershed is composed of the land that drains into a body of water; b) Virginia is composed of multiple watershed systems which have specific features; c) the Chesapeake Bay is an estuary that has many important functions; and d) natural processes, human activities, and biotic and abiotic factors influence the health of a watershed system.
measure, record, and analyze a variety of water quality indicators and describe what these mean to the health of an ecosystem (6.8 d).
natural processes, human activities, and biotic and abiotic factors influence the health of a watershed system.