Community Dynamics Simulation

Lab 7 – Community Dynamics Simulation (50 points total) OVERVIEW In this activity, we will start exploring top-down and bottom-up processes of community ecology. We will use an online simulation tool to examine community ecology interactions and population-level outcomes. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY For this activity portion, we will use this simulation tool (https://www.learner.org/wp-content/interactive/envsci/ecology/ecology.html). Using this tool, you can simulate the development of a community with various types of organisms, trophic levels, and interactions. Before proceeding to the questions below, play around with the simulation for a few minutes. Note that you can step through a simulation one step at a time using Step or 100 days at a time using Run. Reset will reset the simulation. You can set food web connections for each organism in the system separately by pressing the symbol for that organism and selecting which other organisms it eats. Add just one plant species at a time to the food web and run the simulation. * Question 1 - What growth pattern is each plant population demonstrating over 100 days? What does the carrying capacity appear for each plant species in the simulation (A, B, and C)? ...