This lesson aims to teach students the difference between food webs and food chains, as well as how toxins in our environment affect large predators through biomagnification. 

Hank brings us to the next level of ecological study with ecosystem ecology, which looks at how energy, nutrients, and materials are getting shuffled around within an ecosystem (a collection of living and nonliving things interacting in a specific place), and which basically comes down to who is eating who.

Chapters:
1) Defining Ecosystems :1
2) Trophic Structure :1
a) Primary Producers
b) Primary Consumers
c) Secondary Consumers :1
d) Tertiary Consumers :2
e) Detrivores :1
3) Bioaccumulation

Students are introduced to concepts of hypothesis testing using elementary hypothesis tests, t-tests, and p-values as they compare a given fish population for methylmercury levels (using real and hypothetical data) against real-world mercury standards.

Students are introduced to concepts of sampling distributions and hypothesis testing using a simulation applet, elementary hypothesis tests, t-tests, and p-values as they compare a given fish population for methylmercury levels (using real and hypothetical data) against real-world mercury standards.

Methylmercury contamination within fish populations is an important toxin that affect human, animal, and environmental health, serving as a carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) and endocrine-disruptor (compounds that in some way alter the signaling of the hormone system. The impacts of exceeding safe dietary methylmercury levels were tragically made clear in Ontario, Canada, where a First Nations community in Grassy Narrows are living with the consequences of methylmercury poisoning in the fish supply. The fish were contaminated due to the dumping of mercury in the traditional waterways of the First Nation community. In 2016, there were highly publicized protests in Muskrat Falls, Labrador, Canada, where the Inuit people raised direct concerns about the potential for a proposed Nalcor Energy hydroelectric dam, to increase mercury levels in fish in those waters, which are an integral part of their traditional diet. Despite significant protests, the project was completed in 2019 and 41 km were flooded. This module uses these real-world examples as a jumping-off point for exercises that will guide case-study driven discussion on mathematical, biological and ethical concerns.

Methylmercury contamination within fish populations is an important toxin that affect human, animal, and environmental health, serving as a carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) and endocrine-disruptor (compounds that in some way alter the signaling of the hormone system. The impacts of exceeding safe dietary methylmercury levels were tragically made clear in Ontario, Canada, where a First Nations community in Grassy Narrows are living with the consequences of methylmercury poisoning in the fish supply. The fish were contaminated due to the dumping of mercury in the traditional waterways of the First Nation community. In 2016, there were highly publicized protests in Muskrat Falls, Labrador, Canada, where the Inuit people raised direct concerns about the potential for a proposed Nalcor Energy hydroelectric dam, to increase mercury levels in fish in those waters, which are an integral part of their traditional diet. Despite significant protests, the project was completed in 2019 and 41 km were flooded. This module uses these real-world examples as a jumping-off point for exercises that will guide case-study driven discussion on mathematical, biological and ethical concerns.

Students are introduced to concepts of sampling distributions, p-values, and hypothesis testing. Using both simulated and real data for methylmercury level in fish populations, students will determine whether observations fall within government safety guidelines for safe consumption.

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:

"Antibiotic use can increase the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) within microbial communities. This occurs in many settings, including in agricultural fields and within the digestive tract of livestock. These two settings interact when manure is used as fertilizer, carrying ARGs from the livestock gut to soil. Earthworms — and their gut microbiomes — play key roles in soil nutrient cycling and are often used as bioindicators in environmental risk assessment. However, the impact of common agricultural antimicrobials or the addition of manure on ARGs in the gut microbiome of earthworms is rarely examined. A recent study found that exposure to the fungicide carbendazim altered their gut microbial community and increased the abundance of ARGs. Specifically, earthworms dwelling in the manure-amended soil had more abundant ARGs in their gut microbiome and exposure to carbendazim enhanced this effect..."

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