This video highlights specific climate change-related phenomena that are threatening the flora and fauna of Yellowstone National Park.

This interactive visualization provides a clear, well-documented snapshot of current and projected values of several climate variables for local areas in California. The climate variables include observed and projected temperatures, projected snowpack, areas vulnerable to flooding due to sea level rise, and projected increase in wildfires. The projected values come from expert sources and well-established climate models.

Students analyze data on temperature and precipitation collected from 26 different Long Term Ecological Research sites and compare them with annual net primary productivity. The students then form an ecological rule to explain their results.

Students analyze data on temperature and precipitation collected from 26 different Long Term Ecological Research sites and compare them with annual net primary productivity. The students then form an ecological rule to explain their results.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Advances in genomic laboratory and bioinformatics techniques have allowed us to infer microbial ecology information from genomes. This ability has led to great advances in microbiome science; however, there is not yet a standard comprehensive workflow for functional annotation. Some software tools annotate metabolic functions, but the new tool 'METABOLIC' improves upon this and expands into biogeochemical pathways like the carbon cycle. METABOLIC takes sequence inputs from isolates, metagenome-assembled genomes, or single-cell genomes. The data can be processed through two workflow scales: genome and/or community. The genome-scale workflow annotates the genomes and validates motifs of conserved protein residues. It also analyzes metabolic pathways and calculates the microbial contributions to individual biogeochemical processes and cycles. The community-scale workflow adds to this by first determining the genome abundance in the microbiome..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

One of a suite of online climate interactive simulations, this Greenhouse Gas Simulator uses the bathtub model to demonstrate how atmospheric concentrations of CO2 will continue to rise unless they are lowered to match the amount of CO2 that can be removed through natural processes.

Organisms interact with the living and nonliving features within their environment which creates a cause and
effect relationship among populations in the ecosystem. Individual survival and population sizes depend on
factors, such as predation, availability of resources, and parameters of the physical environment (light,
temperature, space for shelter and reproduction). Additionally, organism interaction serves the purpose to
obtain matter and energy. Organisms obtain energy through photosynthesis or consuming other organisms in a
complex set of relationships within a particular food web. These complex food webs serve as a basis for
understanding the dynamic interdependence among organisms and the physical environment.

Open courseware for Macroevolution, focusing on research methods and software packages, such as R.

Course description
Evolutionary thinking provides the underpinnings of modern biology. In recent decades, the field of macroevolution (evolution above the species level) has matured into a rich discipline with a well-developed mathematical theory for testing hypotheses of species diversification, for understanding trait evolution, and evaluating patterns of covariation across the tree of life. This course will provide a synthetic view of biology and how life on earth has changed over time.

Course Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students will:
Understand patterns of diversity in the fossil record, and changes in that diversity over time
Understand macroevolutionary patterns and processes, and the difference between gradualism, stasis, and punctuated equilibrium
Become familiar with ‘tree thinking’, and understand the principles of using a phylogenetic perspective to address evolutionary questions in biology
Gain experience in applying cutting-edge phylogenetic methods for testing hypotheses in macroevolution

This activity is a field investigation where students can go to a body of water and collect the macroinvertebrates there and identify them. Based on what they find, they can assess the water quality by determining the biotic index. Based on the Macorinvertebrate Mayhem from Project Wet.

Students learn how paper is made. Working together, student teams make their own paper. This activity introduces students to recycling; what it is, its value and benefits, and how it affects their lives.

In this adapted ZOOM video segment, cast members get hands-on in the recycling process by using old newspapers to make new paper.

In this learning activity, students analyze an actual dataset of the influence of temperature on tree growth. They use mathematical and statistical concepts like slope equations and lines of best fit to determine the relationship. They are then asked to make predictions about future tree growth under different greenhouse gas emissions, interpreting data from climate models to make these predictions.

This activity is a field investigation where students gather and observe macroinvertebrates in a pond system. From their initial observations, students will formulate a question and test procedures.

This activity from the Department of Energy provides background information about solar ovens and instructions on building a simple model solar cooker.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Thousands of mosquito species inhabit our planet, and for most, surface water is essential to their life cycles. Despite this, many species seem to persist in areas with long dry seasons – even when no water is available to support new offspring. To uncover the tactics mosquitoes use to endure these seasons, a U.S.-based research team has begun pinpointing the environmental cues the insects rely on to detect approaching dry weather. By exposing the insects to these cues in the lab, they’ve uncovered some of the strategies mosquitoes use to survive. The team focused on two species that transmit human malaria: Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles coluzzii. In their home range of sub-Saharan Africa, both species withstand annual dry seasons lasting from 4 to 7 months. Anopheles arabiensis is thought to accomplish this through long-distance migration from areas with permanent standing water..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Coastal environments are by their nature ever-changing. This unit looks at the example of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England, describing how the current state of the estuary came to be. It examines the contests and conflicts that center on the estuary in terms of managing the environment for human needs and the needs of the other species who make their habitat there.

Even experienced divers rarely get to see the Mandarinfish, a colorful reef fish that is so shy, it only comes out of hiding for a half-hour a day. In this video, Jonathan travels to the south Pacific to film spawning Mandarinfish and witnesses an incredible secret ritual. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In this video, Michael Mann and Peter Ramsdorf explore some of the information from the 2013 IPCC 5th report in light of public perceptions of climate science.

In this video, Jonathan travels to the Micronesian island of Yap in the middle of the Pacific to investigate large gatherings of the world's largest ray‰ŰÓthe manta. A research program there is tracking dozens of these animals and Jonathan learns what they're doing hanging around certain coral heads every morning. Please see the accompanying lesson plan on tides for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum/Geology of National Parks module. Students work with a color-coded conditional-formatted spreadsheet map to work through a USGS report applying a coastal vulnerability index, examining real data related to relative sea-level change for different areas of the Californian coas,t including Point Reyes National Seashore.