Ocean Ecology

Year Level: 7-9

Main idea
Students explore the ecology of our ocean ecosystems and gain an appreciation of the diversity of life that they contain and the process that have shaped the plants and animals that live there today.

Key understandings

• An ecosystem consists of both living and non-living components.
• Living things can be recognised using various characteristics.
• Energy flows through ecosystems. Radiant energy from the sun continually enters the system. It may be converted to other forms of energy, used, stored, transformed into heat energy, or reflected back into space.
• Matter cycles within ecosystems. The cycles of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and water typify this process.
• By replacing natural ecosystems with agricultural and/or urban ecosystems, human activity has altered the natural flow of energy and matter.
• An understanding of the way ecosystems function is a critical part of ecosystem management.
• Changes in ecosystems may result from natural processes or human activity, or both.

Focus questions

• What environmental factors contribute to change within populations and communities?
• How does the spatial distribution of organisms relate to their physical requirements (e.g. food or shelter)?
• What types of special association may occur between organisms within communities (e.g. symbiosis)?
• What are biotic and abiotic characteristics?
• What types of interactions occur between living and non-living components of the ecosystem?
• How do matter and energy move within an ecosystem?
• What are some of the impacts of industrialised human societies on the natural environment?
• What is the scientific evidence for the process of biological evolution?
• What are some examples of evolutionary events?

Key terms
Abiotic, biome, biotic, biogeochemical cycles, buoyancy, carbon, change, class, community, diversity, ecology, ecologically sustainable, ecosystem, energy, environment, Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) evidence, evolution, human-activity, interaction, interconnectedness, management, matter, nitrogen, organisms, oxygen, phylum, radiant energy, salinity, system, viscosity, water.

Main idea
Students explore the ecology of our ocean ecosystems and gain an appreciation of the diversity of life that they contain and the process that have shaped the plants and animals that live there today.

Key understandings

• An ecosystem consists of both living and non-living components.
• Living things can be recognised using various characteristics.
• Energy flows through ecosystems. Radiant energy from the sun continually enters the system. It may be converted to other forms of energy, used, stored, transformed into heat energy, or reflected back into space.
• Matter cycles within ecosystems. The cycles of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and water typify this process.
• By replacing natural ecosystems with agricultural and/or urban ecosystems, human activity has altered the natural flow of energy and matter.
• An understanding of the way ecosystems function is a critical part of ecosystem management.
• Changes in ecosystems may result from natural processes or human activity, or both.

Focus questions

• What environmental factors contribute to change within populations and communities?
• How does the spatial distribution of organisms relate to their physical requirements (e.g. food or shelter)?
• What types of special association may occur between organisms within communities (e.g. symbiosis)?
• What are biotic and abiotic characteristics?
• What types of interactions occur between living and non-living components of the ecosystem?
• How do matter and energy move within an ecosystem?
• What are some of the impacts of industrialised human societies on the natural environment?
• What is the scientific evidence for the process of biological evolution?
• What are some examples of evolutionary events?

Key terms
Abiotic, biome, biotic, biogeochemical cycles, buoyancy, carbon, change, class, community, diversity, ecology, ecologically sustainable, ecosystem, energy, environment, Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) evidence, evolution, human-activity, interaction, interconnectedness, management, matter, nitrogen, organisms, oxygen, phylum, radiant energy, salinity, system, viscosity, water.

Theme Overview
The planet is approximately 71% water and contains (5) five oceans, including the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern.

For many years only (4) four oceans were officially recognised, and then in the spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization established the Southern Ocean and determined its limits. Those limits include all water below 60 degrees south, and some of it, like the Arctic Ocean, is frozen.

Oceans by size:

Pacific (155,557,000 sq km)
Atlantic (76,762,000 sq km)
Indian (68,556,000 sq km)
Southern (20,327,000 sq km)
Arctic (14,056,000 sq km)

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