ENV 100 Week 1 Balancing Ecosystems

Resource: Gamescape Episode 1 and Ch. 5 and 6 of Visualizing Environmental Science.

Complete Episode 1: “Balancing Ecosystems” of Gamescape.

Write a 400- to 800-word letter to the City Council in neighboring Glimmerville. In your letter, explain the situation with the Grass Carp and some of the challenges faced in restoring balance to Sparksville’s aquatic ecosystem. Since Glimmerville is experiencing a similar situation, provide advice on how to restore their lake ecosystem. Ensure that each of the following required elements are explicilty addressed in your letter: 

• What is ecosystem balance?
• Which reduction factors and which growth factors impacted ecosystem balance in Episode 1?
• Based on Episode 1 and the assigned readings, describe how invasive species might impact the natural selection of the native species within a habitat? Describe how native and invasive species affect the flow of energy in an ecosystem?
• Describe four possible solutions to the Grass Carp invasion problem. Describe one advantage and one disadvantage for each possible solution.
• As you learned in Chapters 5 and 6, the flow of energy, species interactions, and natural selection change over time. Since ecosystems and species are in flux, why should humans strive to restore and maintain ecosystem balance? Provide one outside example to support your points on why humans should strive to maintain ecosystem balance.
• Why is sustainability important?

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